There are laws in place to promote a culture of responsible gambling and protect people from problems associated with excessive gambling.
Hoteliers, club secretaries and gaming machine staff must undertake Responsible Conduct of Gaming (RCG) training provided by an accredited trainer.
Liquor & Gaming NSW (L&GNSW) may take action against a hotelier or club that engages in conduct that encourages, or is likely to encourage, the misuse and abuse of gambling activities.
Use our tool to find out what signs are compulsory to display in your venue and where.
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By law, hotels and clubs with gaming machines must display contact cards in a clear, plastic, see-through card holder that must be attached to each bank of gaming machines.
These business-card size contact cards provide information to people who are problem gamblers, and their families on self-exclusion and counselling services available from your venue.
Buy contact cards.
By law, approved player information brochures must be displayed in hotels and clubs, and must be provided when requested by a patron.
In addition to English, these brochures must be made available in community languages. These are the Chinese, Korean, Arabic, Turkish and Vietnamese.
Purchase brochures.
Hotels and clubs that operate gaming machines must establish and conduct a self-exclusion scheme. This allows patrons to voluntarily exclude themselves from nominated areas of a gaming venue or the entire venue.
Learn more about self-exlusion.
By law, hotels and clubs must not publish any gaming machine advertising. This means any advertising that gives publicity to, or promotes participation in gambling activities involving gaming machines.
Publish means to disseminate in any way, including:
Advertising that is exempt from the ban includes:
Promotional material sent by the club must advise the member that:
It must also include information or advertising that is not gaming machine related.
Learn more about advertising restrictions.
Regulations are in place for where gaming machines can be located in hotels and clubs. The intention is to ensure that gaming isn’t advertised to members of the public outside of the venue.
A monitor such as a large plasma or LCD screen used to display the jackpot for a linked gaming system or an authorised progressive system is considered a gaming related sign. Therefore, these monitors must not be:
A monitor displaying a jackpot prize from a linked system or an authorised progressive system can only be located in a bar area of a hotel or club or, in the case of a hotel, the gaming room.
Learn more about how you can situate gaming machines and monitors.
There are restrictions around writing cheques if your hotel or club has gaming machines. You must not cash:
Any cashed cheque must be banked within two working days after it was accepted.
If a person claims a prize of more than $5,000, the amount that exceeds $5,000 must be paid within 48 hours in one of two ways:
If the total prize money is more than $5,000 and the prize winner requests to have the entire amount paid by crossed cheque or EFT, not just the amount over $5,000, you must do so.
A prize-winning cheque must be clearly marked with the words: Prize winning cheque – cashing rules apply.
If you conduct an electronic player reward scheme or provide player account cards, you must let your player reward scheme participants and account card holders know that player activity statements are available. If requested, you must provide them with a monthly player activity statement free of charge.
Monthly activity statements must include:
Inducements are incentives that provide benefits to encourage gambling. Your venue must not offer: