29 May 2025
The Greens are urging the Malinauskas Government to commit to phasing out all pokies by 2030 in next week's state budget.
In a letter to Treasurer Stephen Mulligan, Greens MLC Robert Simms has called on the Government to:
- place a moratorium on all new poker machines
- provide a transition fund to support clubs and pubs in phasing out pokies
- introduce a flat tax on all poker machines and increase it to 65%
- commit to phasing out all pokies over 5 years
"Pokies are a scourge on our state. South Australians have lost billions of dollars on these machines over the last 30 years - they have destroyed thousands of lives."
"It's time for the state government to finally show some leadership on this issue and commit to axing pokies.
"Budgets are about choices. It's immoral for our state to continue to use pokies as a revenue measure. The Greens have proposed a range of alternative revenue measures in our budget submission, including scrapping subsidies for fossil fuel companies and imposing a big bank levy.