Hastings District Council has adopted a class 4 gambling sinking lid policy but retained a relocation policy. Photo / File
Hastings District Council has adopted a class 4 gambling sinking lid policy but retained a relocation policy. Photo / File
A new "sinking lid" policy will reduce the number of pokie machines in the Hastings District Council area.
The Problem Gambling Foundation says the policy is a "very slow burn solution" that doesn't go far enough, but the First Light Community Foundation, which distributes money from the machines, feelsthe council took a "pragmatic" approach and is pleased it kept its pokie relocation policy.
The council considered 46 submissions from both sides of the gambling debate at Tuesday's meeting and after hearing concerns about the harm of online gambling, also agreed to lobby the Government next year to regulate the industry.
Even though the council will not issue any more pokie licenses, it approved a relocation policy for existing licence holders. Pokie machines can also be moved to specified areas in Havelock North and Hastings CBDs, Stortford Lodge and Clive.
The decision was made by just over half of the council: Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst and councillors Ann Redstone, Peleti Oli, Sophie Siers, Geraldine Travers, Kevin Watkins, Bayden Barber and Simon Nixon. Seven other councillors were not involved because of conflicts of interest.
At one point it was suggested there be a sinking lid policy for Flaxmere only which councillor Geraldine Travers said "appalled" her. Photo / File
During a lengthy discussion on the gambling policy, the suggestion was made that a sinking lid policy be adopted just for Flaxmere and numbers be capped everywhere else.
But Travers was "appalled" at the suggestion.
"It just horrifies me to think we would be differentiating between parts of the community; our rules need to be the same for everybody," she said.
Problem Gambling Foundation CEO Paula Snowden said the outcome was "good" and the reducing pokie numbers showed the council cared about problem gambling harm. But she said it was a "very slow burn solution".
The "gold standard policy" is to not allow machine relocations or club mergers.
"No amount of charity can justify gambling harm.
"There are still way too many pokie machines in Hastings."
Pokie machines should not be in high deprivation areas, she said, and urged the council to petition the Minister of Internal Affairs to ban pokie machines from specific areas.
However, councillors felt the existing policy was adequate.
First Light Community Foundation director Mark Sowman felt the council had taken a "pragmatic" approach to pokies and was pleased it kept the relocation policy, which he said was "crucial" to the funding the machines provided.
"I try to deal with facts not fallacy, that's what we tried to put up and at least ours can be audited and proved."
