Acquiring a gaming machine

Under NSW law, there are several licences and authorisations you must have in place before operating gaming machines.

It is against the law to be in possession of a gaming machine in NSW unless properly authorised, with maximum penalties up to $11,000 and/or 12 months imprisonment.

Members of the public are advised not to purchase gaming machines if found advertised.

To operate gaming machines you need:

a club liquor licence or a hotel liquor licence
sufficient Gaming Machine Threshold (GMT) for the number of machines you want to operate in your venue
a Gaming Machine Entitlement (GME) or a poker machine permit (PMP) for each gaming machine installed at the venue

Note - The Independent Liquor & Gaming Authority (ILGA) takes a risk-based approach to discharging its functions. This means that ILGA will refer to the statutory objects and specific statutory criteria for making decisions set out in the liquor and gaming legislation. ILGA will also consider relevant liquor and gaming related research and evidence, including crime, demographic and health statistics.

Find out more about GME, PMP and GMT

Once you have the required authorisations and licences you will need to:

buy a gaming machine from a licensed dealer or seller, or from another hotel or club
contact Data Monitoring Systems (DMS) to arrange for the CMS equipment to be installed at your venue
provide direct debit details to Revenue Assurance & Probity Unit - via assurance.probity@liquorandgaming.nsw.gov.au
apply through Quickchange for authorisation to keep and operate the machine
connect the gaming machine to the Centralised Monitoring System (CMS)

Note:

Only clubs are permitted to operate multi-terminal gaming machines (MTGMs)
Only hotels have poker machine permits
Hotels with more than 10 gaming machines must have a Hotel Gaming Room

Financial arrangements to acquire gaming machines

If you buy gaming machines:

payment must be in full and made within 90 days of the delivery date
trade-ins are allowed as part of the purchase price
payment can be in cash or a combination of cash and trade-in.

You can defer the 90 day payment however you must have a financial agreement approved by the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority Board (ILGA) already in place.

Your application for approval of a financial arrangement should be in the form of a letter detailing how the proposed arrangements meet the guidelines and clause 9 of the Gaming Machines Regulation 2019. The application must include a copy of the proposed financial arrangement.

Read: Financial Arrangements For The Acquisition of Gaming Machines PDF, 50.74 KB

Authorisation to keep or dispose of a gaming machine

To install a new gaming machine, change your existing gaming machine, or to dispose of a gaming machine in your venue, you must apply for authorisation.

Learn more about disposing of a gaming machines.

Fees

Example of how installation fees work:

authorising one new device counts as one change
de-authorising a device and replacing it with a new device counts as two changes
authorising one device and attaching it to a progressive jackpot controller counts as two changes.

Fees are direct debited a month after approval, from the account nominated for payment of your gaming machine tax.

For ongoing fees visit: