Councillors in Bendigo, Central Victoria, are responding to calls from within the community to limit the number of pokies in the city. The councillors agreed to cap poker machine levels at their current number in a unanimous decision which reviewed the Bendigo gambling policy.
Rod Fyffe, the major of Bendigo announced that the current level of 584 pokies would not be added to, despite the fact that Victorian State Law says the number could go over 750. Fyffe said that while poker machines could be moved around and licensed premises could negotiate with each other the finite number of Pokies in Bendigo would remain a 584.
Fyffe added that the cap was a direct response to calls from the people of Benigo and while he recognised that pokies where a legitimate form of entertainment the community would be better served by keeping the numbers as they are