Kaikoura pokies an issue

Kaikoura has the highest saturation of gambling machines (pokies) in the country with one machine for every 54 adult residents.

Deputy mayor Barbara Woods expressed her concern over the number of machines and the effect gambling has on local families after a Kaikoura District Council meeting.

"I don't have a problem with gambling, but this is a social issue, I'm very concerned about how problem gamblers' families are affected," she said.

"I would like this to be an eye-opener for the government and local government, the numbers are staggering and I would like to see them do the honorable thing."

The number of machines in Christchurch is much lower at one for every 200 residents, while Auckland has one for every 297 residents.

At the council meeting last Wednesday, council reviewed its gambling venue policy and decided that it would cap the number of machine licences in the district to 60. And while that reduces the number of licences down from 63, it is still more than the number of machines than are currently operating, which is 52.

Deputy major Barbara Woods abstained from voting as she would have liked to see a sinking lid policy – where new machines are banned – put in place.

In figures released recently by the Department of Internal Affairs, for three years in a row gaming machine expenditure has dropped, but not in Kaikoura. The town went against the trend and lost between 10 and 15 per cent more in the last quarter than in the previous one.

The Problem Gambling Foundation estimates Kaikoura lost more than $1 million from April 2009 to March 2010 through gaming machines, which was the fifth largest loss per head of population in the country. That works out to more than $400 per person over 18 years living in Kaikoura, or a loss of $3055 each day.

Councillor Neil Pablecheque informed council he thought about half of the users of pokies were residents, with the other half tourists.

Just more than $250,000 was returned to the Kaikoura community in the form of grants – only 22 per cent of the income generated from the machines. By law 37.2 per cent should be returned to the community, but it doesn't have to be Kaikoura.

Kaikoura has also been identified as being of higher risk than the national average for problem gambling due to socio-economic factors. Ms Woods said she would like to see more support put in place for families of problem gamblers in the form of information. The Kaikoura District Council's Gambling Venue policy is open for public submissions from July 28 until August 27.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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