New South Wales, the largest market in Australia for slots with only Nevada in the US ahead of it in the numbers game, has shown only very slight falls in the number of machines operated in clubs in the state last year.

NSW runs around 95,000 poker machines – or ‘pokies’ as they are popularly called – but there was a drop of only 300 in the six months to the end of 2018, says the state’s Liquor and Gaming NSW in a half-year report. In hotels (pubs) the number of machines fell by only three.

In terms of the number of venues operating machines, there were seven fewer among clubs while hotel numbers fell by 40. The net profit from gambling went up by 4.1 per cent in clubs and 13.4 per cent in hotels.

Although it is recorded as second to Nevada, NSW actually has around half the number of machines as the US state.