An amended Gambling Venues Policy for the Whakatāne District has now been adopted, following the consideration of public feedback by Whakatāne District Council.

Aiming to reduce gambling harm in communities, the purpose of the policy is to outline whether, and how many, TABs and gaming machines can be in the district, and where they can be located.

Whakatāne District Council’s Manager Strategy Sheryl Pinckney said a social impact assessment on gambling in the district found our communities are generally more at risk of gambling harm than people in other parts of New Zealand.

"With 11 out of 12 of our pokie machine venues in communities with the lowest socio-economic rating, our district's vulnerability to the harm caused by gambling is significant," said Pinckney.

"In short, the assessment showed us we needed to go further than what the previous gambling policy did to reduce gambling harm in our district.

"We knew we had to do better, and this new policy is a reflection of that".

For several years, Council has taken a 'sinking lid' approach to the number of pokie machine licenses in the district - it would not grant consent for any new licenses to be issued for gaming machines until the number of licenses fell below 141.

Consistent with the continued objective of reducing the number of gaming machines in the district, following public consultation the most notable changes to strengthen the policy are:

• Clarity around the wording that Council will not grant consent for any new gaming machine licenses or for new gaming venues to be established in our district.
• Existing pokie machines cannot be relocated to a new location in our district— (except for under exceptional circumstances like (but not limited to) natural hazards, climate change, and fire.
• If two clubs wish to merge, they must operate their gaming machines from an existing venue (in other words, no ‘new’ venue will be allowed).
• Council will not grant consent for any new stand-alone TAB venues to be established.

The new Gambling Venues Policy took effect from 19 May 2022 in accordance with the Gambling Act 2003 and the Racing Act 2003. Councils are required to have a gambling policy and to review it every three years. The next one will be reviewed in 2025.

Key numbers

• In our district, 11 of the 12 gaming machine venues are in the most deprived areas.
• There are 193 licenced gaming machines in our district, of which 188 are in operation – an increase of nine machines coming into operation in the past three years.
• In 2019, people spent $11 million on gaming machines in our district. Of this, $2.2 million (20%) was returned to the community (e.g. through grants).