Pokies won't be phased out in Far North | Northland News | Local News in Northland

Restrictions on pokie machines in the Far North will be eased - despite a near-record number of submissions urging the Far North District Council to tighten its rules on gambling.

The council's review of its Gaming and TAB Venue Bylaw attracted 540 submissions, the second highest tally on a single issue since the council was set up in the reforms of 1989.

Of those, 471 submissions - 430 in the form of postcards - called for a gradual phasing out of pokie machines.

Forty submitters - including pub owners, pokie trusts and beneficiaries of pokies grants - supported the council's proposal to stick with its current policy.

That states new pokie licences will not be issued until the number of machines in the Far North drops to the national average. It also bars existing licences from being transferred from one site to another.

However, problem gambling and social advocacy groups wanted the council to adopt a "sinking lid" policy.

That would mean pokie machines would gradually disappear from the district as existing venues closed down or moved. The Kaipara already has such a policy.

At last week's meeting in Kaitaia councillors voted to relax their policy on pokie machines.

The total number allowed in the district would be capped not at 261, equating to the national average, but at the current total of 380.

Licence holders would also be allowed to shift their machines to new locations, which is barred under the old policy.

The councillors' rationale was that barring licence holders from shifting their pokie machines meant they could not upgrade their premises.

It also meant landlords had pub operators over a barrel, knowing they could not move out without losing their pokie licences.

A letter from the Northland Hospitality Association disputed the population figures used to show the number of pokie machines in the Far North was well above the national average.

Over summer the Far North's population doubled, so the number of pokie machines in the district was well below the national average for part of the year, the association said.

Mayor Wayne Brown said allowing machines to be moved to new venues in tourist areas could help new businesses, as well as improving entertainment options for visitors.

Encouraging Aucklanders to spend more money while on holiday in the Far North was a good thing, he said.

At last month's meeting, however, community organisations argued strongly for tighter restrictions.

Diane Matthews, Northland counsellor for the Problem Gambling Foundation, said the most disturbing thing about pokie machines was the way they were concentrated in the poorest areas.

"People hope a big win will change their lives dramatically. That false hope is the hardest thing I have to deal with," she said.

Fred Sadler, of Te Hauora o Kaikohe, likened pokies to a taniwha which clawed away people's mana and "enslaved them to forlorn hopes of vast fortunes that never materialise".

Of the $15 million lost to pokies in the Far North in the past year, only $3 million was returned as grants, he added.

 

Lion Foundation chief executive Martin Cheer, however, argued that gambling was a lawful right and people had been doing it for the past 5000 years.

The pokies returned some of that spending to the community. By contrast, all the money spent on internet gambling disappeared offshore.