Whenever a venue in Victoria wants to add new pokie machines, local gaming and planning authorities must carry out assessments to determine the impact that the new games will have on the community. However, Victorian councillors are concerned that the assessments are not in-depth enough.
According to a recent report in The Age, the Municipal Association of Victoria and local church groups have launched a campaign to attract the attention of the party that wins the upcoming election. They want the new governing party to strengthen the rules of assessments for new poker machines at clubs across the state.
Currently, the assessments only require the applicant to demonstrate that the new pokies will not cause any ‘net economic or social detriment’. The campaigning groups argue that these broad terms do not take into account all of the issues of introducing new poker machines into the state. Another concern is that current assessments only take into consideration the needs of the state as a whole.
It is important for gaming authorities to consider the impact on the specific community in which the pokies will be placed. Monash University found that local councils opposed 68 pokie applications from 2008 to 2014, but 57 were successful. It is this disregard for local communities that the campaign hopes to correct. "There needs to be safeguards for suburbs in poorer areas when assessing new areas," says Monash Mayor Geoff Lake.
"We are just asking to curb the predatory behaviour and reduce pokies moving from wealthier areas to poorer ones." Mayor Lake supports gambling and pokies, and he wants to ensure that the stat government is aware that he is not suggesting the banning of pokies.
He would only like to see greater care taken when deciding whether or not to introduce new poker machines into local clubs.
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