The NSW Independent Liquor & Gaming Authority (ILGA/the Authority) publishes guidelines on its website to inform and provide guidance to stakeholders about ILGA’s processes and factors the Authority considers when making decisions.
ILGA has updated ILGA Guideline 7 – Authority’s decision-making and reasons for decisions – to reflect current practice and recommendations of the June 2025 NSW Auditor-General's Report, “Regulation of gaming machines”.
ILGA accepted the NSW Audit Office’s recommendations and is committed to ensuring decisions are clearly and promptly communicated, generally publishing statements of reasons for decisions within 30 days. In addition, ILGA has already implemented the recommendation to publish statements of reasons for all refused gaming machine applications.
Updates to Guideline 7 include:
- Reference to the Ministerial Statement of Expectations and Directions issued to ILGA on 21 February 2024 and 1 July 2025, including timeframes for the determination of certain matters and publication of statements of reasons;
- ILGA’s practice of providing statements of reasons for applications which are refused under the Gaming Machines Act 2001;
- That applicants can request a statement of reasons where one is not usually required to be prepared;
- ILGA’s practice of publishing statements of reasons which have been prepared but are not legally required to be published – for example, a decision ILGA has agreed to prepare at the request of an applicant.
The new guideline can be viewed at www.ilga.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/2026-03/260327_ILGA_Guideline_7.pdf.
Visit www.ilga.nsw.gov.au/about-us/governance/guidelines to view ILGA’s guidelines.