ClubsNSW chief executive officer Josh Landis made the comment after Premier Dominic Perrottet reaffirmed his commitment to introduce a mandatory cashless gaming card for poker machines.
"I think it's fair to say that the Premier has very little understanding of this issue and has acted from his conservative Catholic gut rather than based on evidence," Mr Landis told the Sydney Morning Herald.
The Premier hit back, saying the comment was untrue, offensive and an attack on all people of faith.
“It has absolutely nothing to do with my faith and the CEO of ClubsNSW should reflect on that,” he told Sydney radio 2GB on Tuesday, January 31.
“The decision I’ve made and the views I have in relation to gaming in NSW is not informed by the fact I’m Catholic — it’s because I believe it’s the right thing to do.
“If you replace the word Catholic with Islamic, Jewish or Hindu you’d be resigning before you got to work this morning.”
Problem gambling has become a hot-button issue ahead of the March 25 election, political parties under pressure to introduce cashless gaming after a NSW Crime Commission report found billions of dollars in dirty money was being laundered through machines every year.
ClubsNSW released a code of conduct on Monday offering a swathe of reforms to the industry, including a ban on suspected criminals, hoping to avert the introduction of mandatory cashless gaming cards.
However, Mr Perrottet doubled down on his commitment to introduce cashless gaming cards, saying the government’s response to the Crime Commission report would be released “shortly”.
Labor says it will cut the number of poker machines and introduce a cashless gaming trial on 500 of the state’s 90,000 machines.
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