According to PGF Services, a counselling advice support service, more than $38.6 million was lost on Class 4 pokies in Tauranga in the 2022 calendar year.
In the Western Bay of Plenty, $8,189,666 was lost. The figures were estimates based on Department of Internal Affairs data.
Fletcher said Matua used to be full of retired couples and older people.
“Now there’s a big mix of young families and we’re just around the corner from the school, so you don’t really want to be too close with the gambling.”
Hazelwood was also happy to see the pokies go. Last year the Government introduced new requirements for venues to reduce gambling harm.
“There’s new regulations that came through and you’ve got to go and check on everybody [using pokies] three times an hour.”
He said if players were getting cash out for the pokies multiple times, bar staff needed to talk to them about their gambling habits.
A Tauranga bar says its customers support its move to ditch its pokies. Photo / Andrew Warner
“We are not trained as counsellors or anything like that, so it’s a bit on the nose.”
The owners did not believe they would take a financial hit by ridding their bar of the pokie machines.
On the contrary, they think the absence of pokie machines would entice more people to frequent their establishment.
“A few customers had an issue [with gambling] and wouldn’t come to the bar because they wouldn’t want to be tempted by the machines. So those people will come back,” Fletcher said.
“When we’ve asked our regulars and said: ‘Are you going to be upset if we take the machines out’? They go: ‘No — it’s a great idea’. Then they won’t be tempted to play them.
“I think it will become a more family-friendly pub because you’re not trying to shield your children from the gambling side of it.”
Gambling regulation changes
In a media statement confirming changes to reduce pokies harm last June, then-Internal Affairs Minister Barbara Edmonds said pokies were “one of the most harmful forms of gambling”, and the biggest driver of people seeking gambling help in New Zealand.
“It is clear that these changes need to be made to help venues better identify and minimise harm to players.
“By making requirements on pokie venues clearer and more enforceable, staff will have the tools and knowledge to identify and act on harmful gambling more often and more consistently.”
