The figures, collated by the NSW Department of Industry, revealed the only gamblers in the Central West to lose more than Orange punters via the machines were those in Dubbo.

Orange clubs made $8.1 million from 309 gambling machines installed at six premises, whereas the hotels made $3.8 million in net profit from 174 machines installed at 13 locations.

The data for clubs was for the period between December 1, 2017 and May 31, 2018, while the hotels data was for the six months to June 30 this year.

In the same six-month periods Dubbo clubs made $10.7 million in net profit from gambling, and hotels another $6.9 million.

Dubbo also had the most gambling machines in clubs (471) and hotels (241) in the region.

Elsewhere in the Central West, Bathurst’s and Blayney’s clubs – grouped together by the department – made $7.5 million in net profit from 310 gambling machines at eight premises.

Hotels in Bathurst and Oberon made $3.2 million from 159 machines at 20 locations.

Lifeline Central West’s Barbara Bard said the support service had noticed an increase in the number of gamblers seeking counselling over the past 12 months.

“People across the age groups gamble,” Ms Bard said, adding Lifeline would be rolling out a new gambling awareness campaign in the next week.

Member for Dubbo Troy Grant said for a small segment of the population gambling was a problem, one the state government was striving to curb.

“The last gambling prevalence study in 2012 found 0.8 per cent of adults in NSW were problem gamblers,” he said.

“A new study will begin in coming months to update these findings.”

“This year the NSW government allocated $25 million for responsible gambling initiatives, including phone, online and face-to-face counselling services.”