Over the first half of 2020 pokies in the Bega Valley's hotels and clubs brought in about $7.7million in net profits, but this is millions less than in the previous six-month period.
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The first part of this year was a period where the region saw the brunt of the impacts of bushfire and COVID-19 restrictions.
These disasters may have had an effect on the pokies' profits as the $7.7million figure is a huge drop compared to the last six months of 2019, which saw net profits of $12.4million.
The figure comes from Liquor & Gaming NSW, which recently released its latest data on gaming machines across the state for the first half of 2020.
Data for hotels was collected from January 1 to June 30 and from December 1 to May 31 for clubs.
When it came to net profits the Bega Valley's clubs made about $6.3million from pokies while hotels brought in about $1.4million.
It is a clear decrease from the previous six months, when Bega Valley's clubs made about $10.3million from pokies while hotels brought in about $2.1million with a combined government tax of about $1.8million.
The most recent data states across the region 11 clubs have 551 gaming machines while nine hotels have 87, equalling 638 machines in total.
This is similar to the previous six months, when 12 clubs had 550 gaming machines and 10 hotels had 89, totalling 639 machines.
In a statement Liquor & Gaming noted its latest figures showed "significant decreases in gaming machine profits" across the state, which had coincided with COVID-19 restrictions including a 10-week closure of all gaming venues from March to May.
The figures showed there was a total net profit decrease of 40.6 per cent, when compared to the previous six month period.
"[Because] of the impacts of the COVID restrictions, the NSW government allowed for a deferral of tax payments in the last instalment period," Liquor & Gaming stated.
In an August media release the Alliance for Gambling Reform's chief advocate, the Rev Tim Costello, said Australians lost $25billion gambling last year, the highest rate of losses per head in the entire world.
"We can come out of this [COVID-19] crisis with a real positive if we can significantly reduce gambling harm," he said.
"That will not only save families and individuals from inordinate pain - including family violence, mental ill-health and homelessness - it will provide billions of dollars to be spent in our economy at a time when we need it most."
Liquor & Gaming's pokies reports will be reissued when the tax information becomes available.
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Albert McKnight
Journalist at Bega District News.
Journalist at Bega District News.
