There are different rules regarding profits from public gaming machines and club machines. Public gaming machines are required by law to invest a percentage of the income back into the community. The clubs don’t have to, but many do. Councillor Bryan Ferguson opened the debate at the October 2020 district council meeting, saying the council’s sinking lid policy on gaming machines was driving money out of the town. “So the whole community loses anyway,” Ferguson said. “The money that the majority of the people spend on gambling in our district is their own money, full stop. “And we can’t control or even try to control what the total financial loss of our community is through gaming. That’s a bit of a fallacy that really bugs me, saying it reflects the social demand for pokie and gaming machines in our district.
The Act is about harm minimisation and controlling the growth of gambling, Froude said. “The council is actually overturning the very best policy to reduce the harm, to put in something that appears on the surface of it to be increasing gambling,” she said. “It’s something that is ambiguous. What [the council] is calling [its] policy I’ve never heard of before, which is like a controlled increase in venue growth.” There are 23 pokies in the Ōtorohanga District, 18 at the Ōtorohanga Club and five at the Kawhia Hotel. The number has remained the same for the past two reviews.
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Ōtorohanga s bid to change its gambling policy is being opposed by the Problem Gambling Foundation and Waikato District Health Board.
Photo: RNZ
Ōtorohanga District Council voted to change from the former sinking lid policy in October 2020 during the required three-yearly review of the gambling policy.
Councillors decided to change to a controlled increase in venues policy which gives the council the ability to look at any new proposals for venues on a case-by-case basis. It s one of the worst policy proposals we have heard of, Problem Gambling Foundation Group marketing and communications director Andree Froude said. For a start, it completely contravenes the Gambling Act because what they [the council] are wanting to do is increase the growth of gambling, which completely goes against the spirit of the Act.