New South Wales (NSW) recently awarded Maxgaming NSW Pty Ltd a fifteen year license to operate the Centralised Monitoring System (CMS) in the state. The CMS license was issued by Liquor & Gaming NSW (LGSNW) and will be used to monitor gaming machines in NSW from 1st December 2017 and will expire on 30th November 2032.

The government had asked companies interested in operating the CMS system that monitors gaming machines in the state to send in their applications and after a detailed review decided to go with Maxgaming. The government had arranged for a competitive application process that was managed by a special government committee and went through a number of detailed assessments that looked at a number of areas covering commercial, financial, technical and legal aspects of the company and its operations.

Incidentally, Maxgaming is the current operator of the CMS and will now have its existing contract extended by an additional twelve months which will run from 1st December 2016 to 30th November 2017. The NSW government will receive a total of AUD$209 million from Maxgaming for its 15 year license and also for the additional 12 month extension.

All registered clubs and hotels that operate legalized gaming machines in NSW will be obligated to pay Maxgaming a CMS monitoring charge that will be levied on each gaming machine. The fixed charge for each machine is set at AUD$43.20 and will be reviewed each year before the 1st of July to see if the charges should be raised due to the impact of inflation.

In a statement, a representative of LGSNW said “The CMS is an important regulatory tool to which all gaming machines in NSW clubs and hotels must be connected to monitor and ensure the integrity of gaming machine operations and to calculate taxes payable on gaming machine revenues. The new system will also provide a number of enhancements for venues including new tools such as cash flow analysis reports.”

Hotels and gaming clubs will have to comply with NSW gaming law and connect to the CMS system to ensure that their gaming machines fully comply with regulations imposed by the state. This is to ensure that all establishments calculate and pay their gaming taxes with no discrepancies and also to ensure a high standard of integrity. The CMS will monitor gaming machines to see that they operate within the allotted time frames, commit no money laundering transactions and do not indulge in in-venue cheating.

Maxgaming has also been given the responsibility of creating a new and improved CMS system that can be used in the coming years to improve and enhance the management and operations of NSW’s gaming network. The new CMS system is expected to be implemented in the state before the end of December 2017.