The NSW Court of Appeal found in favour of the NSW Independent Liquor & Gaming Authority (ILGA) in its case against Whitebull HTL Pty Ltd, Area Hotel and The Griffith Hotel Pty Ltd on 20 September 2023.
The Court set aside the orders of the Supreme Court dated 5 June 2023 and affirmed ILGA’s powers to impose harm minimisation conditions on gaming machine applications and consider the impact of gaming machines on the community.
While the case was ongoing, ILGA deferred affected applications pending the outcome of the appeal.
As promised, ILGA then prioritised consideration of applications that were deferred pending the decision to ensure they were determined as soon as possible.
All 44 deferred applications, apart from those subsequently withdrawn, have now been considered by ILGA’s board.
These include:
- applications to increase Gaming Machine Thresholds not requiring Local Impact Assessments (LIAs)
- applications for approval of the transfer of Gaming Machine Entitlements
- applications for approval of the leasing of Gaming Machine Entitlements.
In the interests of transparency ILGA will prepare statements of reasons for applications from this group of matters that were refused.