New South Wales is putting more money into frontline gambling harm support, with GambleAware services set to expand across the state.
The Minns Government has announced an extra A$1.3 million in annual funding for GambleAware, increasing the number of service locations from 34 to 49. That is a 44% lift in coverage, aimed at giving people affected by gambling harm more places to get free and confidential help.
The funding will also add five new peer support workers, taking the total number to 16. Those roles matter because gambling harm is not always easy to talk about with someone who only knows it from a training manual. Peer workers bring lived experience, which can make the first conversation feel less like a formal appointment and more like speaking to someone who understands the mess from the inside.
GambleAware provides gambling counselling, financial counselling, peer support and community outreach. It also runs a 24-hour crisis helpline for people affected by their own gambling or someone else’s.
Demand for Gambling Harm Support Is Already High
The demand is already clear. In 2024–25, GambleAware supported 4,170 clients through more than 19,000 counselling sessions. Its helpline also handled more than 9,500 crisis calls.
Those numbers say plenty about the scale of the problem in NSW. They also show why extra funding is not just a nice policy add-on. Gambling harm often arrives with debt, secrecy, stress, family conflict and shame attached. If support is too far away, too slow or too clinical, people may not ask again.
Gaming and Racing Minister David Harris said the government is focused on preventing and responding to gambling harm, which can affect individuals as well as their loved ones. He also pointed to the wider reform work already under way, including changes aimed at pubs and clubs, money laundering risk and criminal activity.
That wider context matters. NSW has spent the past year tightening several parts of its gambling system. The state has revoked hundreds of pokies shutdown exemptions, introduced stronger venue rules and continued work around harm minimisation and cashless gaming trials. More counselling funding will not replace those reforms, but it sits beside them.
Support Services Cannot Replace Prevention
There is always a risk that governments lean too heavily on support services after harm has already happened. A helpline cannot undo losses. A counsellor cannot make a machine less aggressive. A peer worker cannot turn back the clock on years of debt. Prevention still has to happen earlier, through product rules, venue controls, advertising limits and stronger intervention.
Even so, treatment and support are essential. Gambling harm is not only a policy debate. It is people trying to explain missing money, repair relationships and find a way to stop before the next payday disappears.
The expansion from 34 to 49 locations should be especially useful outside inner-city areas, where access to specialist help can be patchier. Gambling harm does not stay neatly inside Sydney, and support services should not either.
For the industry, the message is also clear. NSW is no longer treating gambling harm as something to be handled by a small disclaimer at the bottom of an ad or a sign near the gaming room. More services, more peer workers and more public funding all point to the same conclusion: the damage is large enough to require a bigger response.
The new funding will not solve NSW’s gambling problem on its own. But for someone ready to ask for help, the difference between no nearby support and a real conversation can be the moment things start to change.