New monitoring of pokie machines

It will soon become harder for gaming machine operators to pocket money intended for community groups.

Work begins today to connect more than 20,000 poker machines in about 1600 pubs and clubs to an electronic monitoring system.

The Director of Gambling Compliance Mike Hill says currently pubs and clubs keep records manually.

He says by linking all the sites it will show how much money is gambled, what each machine pays out and also how much money should be banked.

Mr Hill says inaccurate record keeping and incorrect banking are the most common problems found during audits carried out by Internal Affairs' gambling inspectors.

- NEWSTALK ZB