Sports clubs campaigning against gambling bill

File Photo / NZ Herald

Sports clubs that are worried about losing proceeds from pokies have been running a scaremongering campaign against new legislation, Maori MP Te Ururoa Flavell says.

His gambling bill will phase out the trusts which distribute gambling money, and ensure that 80 per cent of gambling proceeds are redistributed directly back into the community they were taken from.

After a select committee presentation this morning, Mr Flavell said groups with "vested interests" in gambling proceeds had been spreading misinformation about what the bill would do.

"The mere fact that the members have said that the local sports club cannot apply for pokies money ... they've got the wrong end of the stick."

He said the bill did not take away the right of any club to apply for gambling money.

"The sporting clubs are are still eligible to get money, that's not going to change. The bottom line is someone will still make a decision about that money.

"The key part around that is who is it going to be? Is it the trusts that we have at the moment, some which have been found to be rorting the system?"

The Gambling Amendment bill would gradually replace "pokie trusts" with more transparent local authorities.

Submitters, including some councils, have opposed this change because it would create more costs for territorial authorities and open the process up to political interference.

Mr Flavell said he had heard this concern and was open to suggestions from the committee.

But in his presentation he emphasised the problem of corruption among pokie trusts.

He cited a Department of Internal Affairs report from this year which showed 750 trusts had not been able to explain their high costs.

Mr Flavell said it was not possible to eliminate pokies or gambling from New Zealand, but it was possible to make the distribution of funds fairer.

The committee received nearly 5000 submissions on the bill, the majority of which came from sports clubs and community groups concerned about losing their funding.