Sinking Lid Policy May Apply to All of Dunedin

The year, Dunedin’s city council decided to enact a sinking lid policy on poker machines in the south of city. The plan is beneficial because the area has one of the highest concentration of pokies in the country, but politicians are now wondering if the sinking lid policy should apply to the whole city.

South Dunedin’s new sinking lid policy aims to reduce the number of games until there are only five pokies clubs containing a maximum of 50 games. At the moment, there are 12 clubs with 168 pokies, making the rate of games 12 pokies per 1000 people.

Throughout the rest of Dunedin, there are 3.4 pokies per 1000 people, which is far below the national average of 5 games per 1000 people. There is a cap of 362 pokies in 30 venues, but some councillors want to see a stricter policy.

Councillor Richard Thomson has requested that South Dunedin’s sinking lid policy apply to the whole city. He believes that this will help to reduce problem gambling rates across all of Dunedin. As expected, club and pub owners are not on board, so there will likely be a heated debate over the issue.

Auckland Council Passes Sinking Lid Policy

After months of deliberation, Auckland City Council has decided to passed a sinking lid policy on poker machines. Over the course of the next few years, Auckland will see a decline in the number of pokies throughout the country.

Councillors have spent the past few months reviewing submissions from other 10 000 sources. Responsible gambling group No More Pokies gathered 9000 submissions in support of the sinking lid policy, showing overwhelming support from local residents.

A number of provisions have been put in place in order to ensure that the number of pokies is reduced over time. Firstly, clubs owners that choose to relocate cannot take their pokies with them and they cannot offload the licenses to other operators. Clubs that merge can only host 5/6s of their combined poker machines; the rest of the games must be discarded.

Experts believe that problem gamblers will feel less compelled to engage in compulsive behaviour if there are fewer opportunities to gamble. As such, it is hoped that a decline in poker machine numbers will help to reduce gambling spending and problem gambling rates across Auckland.

Councils Mull Sinking Lid Policy

In New Zealand, politicians are getting tough on poker machines. In addition to the introduction of the new Harm Reduction Bill, city councils want to introduce sinking lid policies to further reduce the number of pokies in their jurisdictions. Auckland City Council is currently in the process of hammering out the details of its own sinking lid policy, which put strict limits on how many poker machines can exist in the area.

As it stands, local councillors have voted for the strictest option. They have requested that, in addition to reducing the number of poker machines over time, the sinking lid policy should also prohibit poker machines from being moved. This means that venues that have relocated cannot bring their pokies with them and venues cannot sell their machines to other locations.

One exception that councillors have supported is allowing clubs to merge, in order to ensure that they stay afloat. However, politicians believe that clubs with poker machines should not be able to move their games to clubs that do not have pokies – even if they merge. There is some debate over this provision, but many politicians are in support of it.

Palmerston Locals Want to Keep Pokie Numbers Intact

Across the country, it is becoming apparent that gambling addiction is big problem among residents. As such, local politicians in Palmerston are considering the possibility of removing poker machines in order to curb problem gambling rates. A committee was recently assembled to determine the viability of the idea – and some surprising results were uncovered.

Navid Foroutan of the NZ Problem Gambling Foundation has urged local politicians to lower its sinking lid policy cap from 430 pokies in the area to 400. As in many other cities across new Zealand, the lowering of the sinking lid policy cap is meant to reduce the rates of problem gambling.

However, the committee discovered that the public does not back the idea. While some believe that a sinking lid policy would be helpful, the vast majority believe that it would not be effective enough to truly treat gambling addiction problems in the area.

It seems that locals want to maintain the number of poker machines while searching for other ways to deal with problem gambling. Some submissions to the committee were from actual problem gamblers who would like to see more education and counselling programs made available, which would get to the root of the problem gambling issue.