Whanganui District Council reviews pokie machine policy

Whanganui District has 208 pokie machines but council policy could progressively reduce that. Photo / File

Adult New Zealanders should be able to spend their money as they like - including by gambling on pokie machines, the Gaming Machine Association of New Zealand says.

Jarrod True spoke on behalf of the association as Whanganui District Council began a review of its gambling venues policy.

Problem gambling affects only 0.2 per cent of New Zealanders, or about 91 people in the Whanganui District, True said. Gambling venues provide local employment, pay taxes and GST and donate back to their communities.

He contrasted this with "the elephant in the room", the continued increase in online gambling.

"Our venues are public venues. There are staff there. The maximum you can bet on our machines is $2.50, and the maximum you can win is $1000. People can gamble online at any time, with no one monitoring them."

True would prefer council policy to cap the number of venues in the district, not reduce the number of machines. He argued that there was no relationship between the number of machines and the amount gambled.

The council's gambling venues policy has sought to progressively decrease the number of pokie machines in the district. It has reduced from 225 to 208 during the past five years.

Proposed changes now being considered would add detail about venues merging and relocating. The current policy has a loophole that allowed Barracks Sports Bar to get a licence to operate the 18 machines from the closed Midtown Motor Inn.

In the proposed new version of the policy, machines would leave the district when a venue closed.

The policy review received 58 submissions. Councillors started hearing them last week, and will continue on Tuesday, December 15.

Thirty-nine of the submissions want the sinking lid to stay, and 14 of those want it tightened further.

On the other side are 19 submitters who oppose the sinking-lid policy. The majority would prefer a cap on venues instead, and most of them rely on donations from gaming societies.

Graeme "Grader" Howells, of the Aramoho Whanganui Rowing Club, said the donations keep club membership fees down, and 80 per cent of its members are secondary students.

It's difficult for families to meet the fees and the club wants to maintain grants at their current level, Howells said.

"We have asked ourselves if we are comfortable to receive grants from the proceeds of gambling."

Whanganui Masters Games Trust trustee Mike Cronin said gaming societies have contributed about $180,000 toward the $1 million event, which kept entry fees down. There were not many other funding sources.

"We are highly reliant on Class 4 gaming."

Some submitters are problem gamblers themselves.

"As a problem gambler, with PGF [Problem Gambling Foundation] support, I know of temptation and it needs 'capping' asap," one said.

Whanganui District Health Board health promotion officer Chester Penaflor said the sinking-lid policy will prevent harm.

He quoted from the council's own proposal: "Gambling harm is often hidden, but can be recognised in poverty and loss of savings, damage to health, susceptibility to addictive behaviours, crime, violence, broken down relationships and poor performance at study or work."

In 2019 more than $10.7 million was spent on pokies in Whanganui - about $29,000 a day, council officers calculate.

By law, 40 per cent of the proceeds must be returned to the community in donations. That year $3.1m was donated directly and indirectly to district organisations - 29 per cent of the total.

Whanganui mayor Hamish McDouall said there was a sense that although money was "coming out of Whanganui" from pokie machines, the correct amount was not being returned.

The hearing continues on Tuesday, December 15.