In New Zealand’s Far North District, there is a bylaw in place that allows venues to transfer their pokie machines to other locations. Now, a new legislation may axe the law, aiming to reduce the number of pokies that are located in pubs and clubs across the country. The law was introduced during the law review of gambling laws in New Zealand.
Venue operators were banned from opening up new poker machine venues with new games, but there were permitted to transfer pokies between their venues. This meant that they could add new games so long as they came from another venue. This was quite a controversial law, as responsible gambling advocates argued that it did little to reduce pokie numbers.
While new pokies could not be introduced into the community, the fact remained that pokies were still not being taken away. As such, sinking lid policies proved to be ineffective. At the same time, the Far North District Council also raised the pokie cap, allowing for clubs to install new games. The cap was raised from 261 to 280, allowing for nearly 20 new games in the area.
Mayor Wayne Brown was criticised for the raise, but he defended his actions by stating that it only targeted visitors to the area rather than residents. Now, the local council aims to scrap these laws to help further reduce gambling spending in the area. Since gambling spending has already dropped by 10.6% in the Far North, and councillors would like to see the numbers reduced even further.
This will mean that clubs will lose their pokies when they close. They cannot transfer them to new locations. It would help to reduce the number of pokies in the district overall, which could help to reduce spending and problem gambling rates.
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