Independent MLA Thomas Emerson says a survey of more than 500 people shows strong support for banning political donations from the gambling industry.

ACT Labor and the Canberra Liberals, Mr Emerson states, received nearly $276,500 worth of cash and in-kind gifts from gambling industry entities between 2015/16 and 2025/26, a significant portion in the form of free facilities use.

But both major parties reject suggestions that industry support has influenced their gambling policies.

Mr Emerson’s Electoral (Gambling Industry) Amendment Bill, introduced in June, seeks to ban political donations from gambling industry entities and associated people, and capture free or discounted use of meeting-rooms. It is before a Legislative Assembly committee, which will report by late October.

ACT Labor received substantial financial support from the Canberra Labor Club until the mid-2010s, including more than $1 million in 2011/12. Labor’s funding vehicle, the 1973 Foundation, was set up in 2010, and received almost $6.5 million from the Club between 2010/11 and 2013/14. Direct cash contributions from the club ended by 2014/15, and Labor later introduced reforms to reduce poker machine numbers.

ACT Labor secretary Caitlin Cook said there was no financial relationship between ACT Labor and the Club; ACT Labor members elected some of the club’s board members at their annual conference.

Mr Emerson said the 2016 election saw “political donations being weaponised by gambling industry entities in an attempt to influence policy decisions”: Clubs ACT donated $195,000 to Canberra Community Voters, which campaigned against Chief Minister Andrew Barr over proposed casino poker machines, and spent another $56,000 on its own advertising.

More recently, Mr Emerson said, gambling businesses and organisations have continued making cash and in-kind contributions to ACT political parties. The Canberra Liberals received donations from the gambling lobby in 2022/23 and resumed receiving cash donations from Clubs ACT in September 2025. Meanwhile, several gambling reforms the ACT Government has considered – including lowering bet limits on poker machines, introducing load-up limits, and a total ban on gambling advertising – have not yet been implemented, Mr Emerson said.

NSW banned political donations from gambling industry corporations in 2011, and from not-for-profit clubs with poker machines in 2023.

Mr Emerson has released survey results showing that 86 per cent of 514 respondents support getting gambling money out of ACT politics, and 83 per cent think donations from the gambling industry influence politicians’ decisions about gambling reform.

“This survey shows Canberrans overwhelmingly support strong action on gambling harm, and are concerned they’ve not seen it because of political donations exerting undue influence on the major parties’ policy agendas,” Mr Emerson said.

More than 72,000 incidents of gambling harm were reported in the ACT last year – or 200 incidents a day, Mr Emerson said.

“Australians are the biggest gambling losers in the world,” Mr Emerson said. “The industry likes to pretend it’s all a bit of harmless fun with mates, but gambling harm is a massive public health crisis that’s destroying lives and ripping families apart.”

Mr Emerson argues that industry money creates actual or perceived influence. Last month, federal Labor and the Coalition supported a federal gambling reform package that imposed new restrictions, but fell short of the comprehensive ban on online gambling advertising and sponsorship the Murphy inquiry, headed by a Labor politician, recommended in 2023: there will be no national regulator and only partial restriction on gambling advertising.

“Our community has just watched on in despair as the Albanese Government stitched up a deal with the Coalition to pass a weak gambling reform package that nobody’s happy about except the gambling lobby,” Mr Emerson said. “The major parties chose to protect vested interests in spite of all the evidence, expert input, multipartisan committee recommendations, and demands of everyday Australians for serious reform.

“If that can happen in the Federal Government, it can absolutely happen here in the ACT, and this survey shows that’s not a risk Canberrans are willing to take.

“The data from this survey is very clear: Canberrans want gambling money out of politics. ACT Labor and the Canberra Liberals have an opportunity here to show they’re not like their federal counterparts, and are willing to put the best interests of their constituents ahead of the interests of the gambling industry.

“If Labor ignores this call to action by seeking to water down or block this legislation, that’ll be evidence the Barr Government is just as captured by vested interests as the Albanese Government.”

ACT Labor rejected the premise. Ms Cook said the party received gift-in-kind room hire from community clubs, but has not taken cash donations from gambling industry clubs in more than a decade.

“ACT Labor has introduced some of the most significant gambling reforms in the country, despite sustained opposition from the industry,” Ms Cook said.

ACT Labor met its commitment to reduce poker machine authorisations to 3,500 by 1 July 2025 – an almost 30 per cent reduction from 2018 (4,956 authorisations), Ms Cook said.

Labor has also committed to reducing machine numbers to 1,000 by 2045; to fast-tracking a cashless gaming framework; and commissioned an independent inquiry into the future of the ACT clubs industry, directed at reducing the sector’s reliance on gambling revenue.

“A party subject to industry influence would not have legislated against the industry’s wishes as we have done,” Ms Cook said.

“This record is not consistent with any suggestion that the incidental use of community venues has secured influence over government decision and policy making.

“ACT Labor has led every ACT government throughout this work, and a Labor minister [Dr Marisa Paterson, formerly head of the ANU Centre for Gambling Research] currently holds the gaming reform portfolio.

“On the argument given, the party’s gambling policy would have been cautious, or favourable to the industry. It has been neither. The ACT is presently pursuing some of the strongest gambling reforms in the country, over the industry’s objection.

“A claim that financial ties have prevented bold action cannot be reconciled with a government that is actively working to implement these policies.”

Opposition leader Mark Parton disputed Mr Emerson’s characterisation both of the figures and of the clubs themselves.

He said the totals combined cash, fundraising tickets, and gifts in kind (including free or discounted facilities and room hire arrangements).

“Venue use would likely be the largest component, and that simply doesn’t equate to a cash donation,” Mr Parton said.

“The name of the Bill is also somewhat misleading. ACT clubs are not for profit member owned community institutions. They don’t distribute profits to shareholders. They reinvest revenue into facilities, staff sport community programs, local charities, and community organisations [so] to characterise ACT clubs as ‘the gambling industry’ is a little misleading.”

Mr Emerson said the Public Health Association of Australia, the Australia Institute, the Mental Health Community Coalition ACT, the Youth Coalition of the ACT, the Canberra Gambling Reform Alliance, the Australian Multicultural Action Network, the Canberra Alliance for Participatory Democracy, and Active Democracy Bean support his bill.