Responsible gambling advocates across New Zealand have recently been concerned about rising rates of problem gambling across the country. Over the course of the past five years, pokie spending has been rising significantly – but things have taken on a different direction recently.
According to Radio New Zealand, pokie spending is now at the lowest it has been since 2008. From December 2012 to December 2013, poker machine spending dropped by 3.4% from $839.7 million to $811.5 million. Pokie spending levels have not been this low in five years, and New Zealand’s Problem Gambling Foundation believes that this is due to new gaming laws that have been passed in several cities across the country.
Many local city councils have passed ‘sinking lid policies’, which aim to reduce the number of pokies in the city over time. Games that already exist in local pubs and casinos can remain but no new game can be added. While there is no direct correlation between the number of games in an area and problem gambling rates, sinking lid policies seem to have a positive effect on reducing pokie spending.
While controversial, the SkyCity convention centre deal is also likely to have contributed to the decline in pokie spending. The casino will be adding hundreds more machines, but the debate over the games helped to make people more aware of the risk of possibly becoming addicted.
“We know that the SkyCity convention deal brought pokies into the forefront, which has contributed to an increase in awareness,” says Andree Froude of the Problem Gambling Foundation. This is certainly a great step forward, but responsible gambling advocates feel that more can be done to combat problem gambling.
Since sinking lids only prevent new games from being introduced, some believe that new laws should be introduced to actually remove games from venues. In the meantime, sinking lid policies will continue to help reduce problem gambling rates, and local community groups are pleased with the results.
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