Poker machines across New South Wales will soon be equipped with a new monitoring system. Operated by Maxgaming, the Centralised Monitoring System (CMS) will help club owners better manage their pokies to the benefit of players across the state.
Maxgaming paid a $209million to the NSW government to operate CMS on the state’s pokies. All clubs and hotels that contain games will have to paid $43.20 per game per month to the licensee. This agreement will be upheld until 2032.
CMS will provide gaming venue owners will a wide range of tools that will benefit players and their own businesses. One of the major benefits of CMS is that it will help to prevent money laundering, a crime that persists in gaming clubs across the state. By reducing financial crimes in pokie venues, CMS will help to maintain the integrity of the Australian gambling market.
Another upside of the new monitoring system is that it will stop players from gambling outside of the approved times. This is normally a task for club and hotel staff, but there are times when a staff member may not be on hand in order to enforce these rules. As such, CMS will help to reduce potential gambling harm and ensure that players are gambling responsibly when they play pokie.
“The CMS is an important regulatory tool to which all gaming machines in NSW clubs and hotels must be connected to monitor and ensure the integrity of gaming machine operations and to calculate taxes payable on gaming machine revenues,” says a spokesperson for Liquor and Gaming NSW.
Industry experts are eager to the new monitoring system in action. It could start a trend across the country, as more states look into regulating their pokies with tools like CMS.