Watchdog lines up more pokie venues

Government regulators plan to pounce on three more sports clubs in the next month after this week's action against three pokie trusts for alleged tie-ups with trotting clubs.

Internal Affairs Department gambling compliance director Mike Hill said yesterday that his team had been investigating 11 cases of potential conflicts of interest involving "key persons" in the $900 million non-casino poker machine industry, including the three targeted this week.

Three more - involving pokie trust links with a rugby club, a soccer club and a broader sports club - were expected to be ready to move on in the next "two to four weeks".

Problem Gambling Foundation chief executive Graeme Ramsey said the cases that had come to light so far were "the tip of the iceberg".

"The whole structure needs a fundamental review because the cases they have mentioned are nothing like the volume that we are aware of."

He said grants by the country's 50 pokie trusts to the racing and trotting industry alone had jumped from $7 million in 2005 to just over $20 million in each of the past two years.

Mr Hill said on Monday that he planned to impose a new gambling licence condition on the Lion, Perry and Infinity foundations to stop them giving any more grants to the Manukau, Kumeu and Franklin trotting clubs and the Thames Harness Racing Club, which all race at Alexandra Park. He said the three trusts' grants to the four clubs had jumped from $400,000 up to 2005 to $5.4 million between 2006 and the end of last year.

The department investigated "the grant application process, flow of funds and the relationship between the societies, trotting clubs and Northern Hospitality Management Ltd".

He proposed to close pokie venues for 21 days at seven of the three trusts' venues operated by Northern Hospitality in Auckland and Wellington.

The Lion and Perry foundations issued statements last night denying that they had broken the Gambling Act's ban on conflicts of interest, and are expected to appeal to the Gambling Commission.

Mr Hill said he had chosen to impose penalties on the trusts directly, rather than prosecute them in court, in the hope that the Gambling Commission would clarify the law quickly.

"This matter will be before the Gambling Commission within three months and resolved.

"If you ended up in the courts for a prosecution you could be going for 12 to 24 months."

TARGETED TAVERNS

The seven pokie venues the Internal Affairs Department wants to shut for 21 days are:
* Lion Foundation
* Oaks Tavern, Penrose
* Alamo Bar & Grill, Papatoetoe
* Perry Foundation
* Hilly Bar and Cafe, Lynfield
* Hops n Hooves, Mt Albert
* Infinity Foundation
* Rockz Bar & Cafe, Porirua
* North City Tavern & Bar, Porirua
* Clockworks, Tawa

Note: The list of pokie venues that the Internal Affairs Department wants to shut for 21 days includes the Lion Foundation, the Perry Foundation and Infinity Foundation. The closures would involve venues belonging to these foundations, not the foundations themselves.