There are more than 4000 poker machines in the Illawarra and, in just six months, they made more than $100 million in profits.
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Twice a year the Office of Liquor and Gaming releases data on the pokies "as part of the NSW Government's commitment to transparency on gambling activity in local communities".
That data shows the Wollongong local government area is the biggest moneyspinner in the region when it comes to profiting from the pokies.
They raked in $78 million in profit between December last year and May 2019.
Of that, Wollongong's 37 clubs accounted for $58 million in profits from the 2463 poker machines in the LGA.
Wollongong's 29 hotels - housing 549 machines - made $20 million in profit.
The 759 machines in Shellharbour's clubs were responsible for adding $20 million to their bottom line.
There might only be six clubs in tiny Kiama, but they include 218 machines accounting for almost $4 million in profits.
The data combines the profits for Shellharbour and Kiama's hotels, which brought in just under $7 million via 173 machines.
In terms of the bottom line, the most profitable pokies in the Illawarra are at Shellharbour Workers Club which was ranked the 47th club in the state in terms of net profit.
Wests Leagues Club at Unanderra (No54), Collegians Wollongong (No57) and Dapto Leagues Club (No68) were the other clubs in the Illawarra that appeared in the top 100.
Shellharbour Workers also was the highest in the region when it came to profit per machine, coming in at No49, with Dapto Leagues (No55) and Collegians (No83) also making the top 100.
No Illawarra hotels made the most profitable 100 - the highest ranked pub was Warrawong's Open Hearth at No 198.
Of the more than 1300 hotels on the list, Shellharbour's Central Hotel came in at No248, the Berkeley Hotel at No250 and the Corrimal Hotel at No254.
The numbers of poker machines in Illawarra clubs has dropped, when compared to the same six-month period a year earlier (December 2017 to May 2018) - but the hotels have picked up a few more over the same period.
Wollongong clubs had 59 fewer machines - 2522 compared to 264 in the first half of 2019 - along with a drop in profits while Shellharbour's tally went down from 777 to 759 but made roughly the same amount of money.
Kiama's clubs had to make do with fewer pokies - albeit they only had six less than a year ago - but still managed to increase profits by almost $400,000.
The pokies in Wollongong's hotels went up by six, from 543 to 549 while the combined Shellharbour-Kiama tally rose by three from 170 to 173.