Tougher pokie rules on the way for city
Nelson is a step closer to bringing in tougher pokie rules, including reducing the cap on the number of machines.
Nelson’s gambling policy is reviewed every three years, and Nelson city councillors have been divided over the best way to update the current rules.
But after two hours of debate that centred on the balance between social harm from gambling and the community benefit from gaming grants, the council’s planning and regulatory committee agreed on Thursday to put a number of changes to the full council.
They include capping the number of pokies in the CBD at 162 – the current number of machines – compared to 273 under the existing policy. The committee is also proposing to exclude pokie machines from areas of high deprivation, and reducing the number of pokies allowed at new venues from nine to five.
The proposed changes attracted about 50 submissions from the public, most of them in favour of more restrictive pokie policies, including a ‘‘sinking lid’’ policy.
A sinking lid was debated in September, but ultimately was not put up for public consultation. It would have meant that as venues closed or got rid of gaming machines, new ones would not be permitted to open in their place or replace the machines.
Those in favour of maintaining the status quo or having less restrictive rules were primarily individuals or organisations which benefited from gambling income.
Over a five-year period, on average, about 18 per cent of gambling proceeds gathered in Nelson, $1.8 million, went back into the community via charitable grants. The total proceeds from gambling in the same time period were just over $9m.
Councillor Kate Fulton strongly advocated for the sinking lid policy, as she was concerned about the amount of harm problem gambling did to the community.
‘‘There’s a significant portion of people . . . who individually might not be experience extreme harm, but collectively we’re seeing that impact in terms of our community’s wellbeing,’’ she said. ‘‘Twenty per cent of the New Zealand population at some point in time in their life has been impacted by pokie machines in a negative way.’’
Fulton expressed some regret that the sinking lid policy was no longer in the running, but said it was too late to introduce it again, as the community hadn’t been consulted on that proposal.
‘‘We discussed at lengths the proposal to have a sinking lid policy, and that proposal was lost by one vote. I’m happy that this is the best we can do now, based on what we went out with. I think the next time we look at it, we should be looking at a sinking lid.’’
Cr Luke Acland also said the policy the committee had was ‘‘the right thing to do in the circumstances’’, but he didn’t necessarily think the policy changes went far enough.
‘‘There’s a wider context in terms of balance between harm caused by gambling, and benefit to the community of the income from gamblers . . . those issues are the broader ones that we haven’t explored in detail, in terms of like a social impact assessment, so that’s what we should be doing next time.’’
He said the community benefit was focused on ‘‘to an unusual degree’’, saying he preferred not to benefit from gambling proceeds.
‘‘I prefer to pay for my own subs [sports club subscriptions], and know that I’m not contributing to someone ending up with a conviction for stealing from their employer to fund their gambling habit. Because I don’t want that money, if I’m playing sport. And I see a lot of that in the district court every year.’’
Nelson Mayor Rachel Reese expressed frustration at the need to use gambling proceeds for funding, but said it was a necessary evil, as not everyone was able to pay their way.
‘‘I find the whole concept that we are sitting here having to deal with this legislation and the methods of how we fund organisations through gambling really quite sad . . . it never makes anyone happy.
‘‘I share the feeling that this is second best, there should be a better way to fund organisations in need, and I hear the argument that you pay your subs rather than do that, but many people are just not in that privileged position.’’
The amended policy will go to a full council meeting on December 13.