Southland District gambling problem worse than reported, councillors hear – Stuff

Geoff lewis/Stuff

Pokie machines [generic image].

The Gaming Machine Association of New Zealand says just two people have sought help for problem gambling in the Southland District Council area in the past 12 months.

The associations representative Jarrod True said Ministry of Health figures show in 2018-19 just one person in the Southland District sought help for problem gambling, in 2019-20 nobody sought help, and in the past 12 months, two people sought help for problem gambling.

However, in response to questions from councillors at a meeting on Wednesday, True said there would be up to eight problem gamblers for every person who self-reported their problems.

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But districts of a similar size to Southlands had 40 or 50 or 60 people presenting with problem gambling, rather than two, suggesting Southlands problem was less, he said.

True was submitting on the councils draft pokie machine venues policy.

The council has yet to make a final decision, but the draft policy would allow venues to continue operating existing machines, and replace them when necessary, but would not permit licences for new machines.

True, one of the submitters to the policy, asked that the councils current sinking lid policy be replaced with a cap at current numbers which was a mere 14 venues and 88 machines in the district.

In 2013 there were 133 pokie machines in the Southland District Council area, and that number had reduced to 88, he said.

Eighty-eight machines was reasonable given the very low problem gambling rate in the district, he said.

In the past decade 4600 machines had been removed from New Zealand, a 25% reduction, and in the same period the problem gambling rate had remained the same, True said.

Gaming machines gave people entertainment, and funding from the machines was returned to the community via community grants, he said.

True believed retaining the sinking lid policy would accelerate the migration to offshore based online gambling which had no local grants, no local employment and no harm minimisation controls.

However, another submitter, Ivan Yeo of the Asian Family Services, said those people classed as problem gamblers were at the very sharp end of the problem, and the Ministry of Health had reported 250,000 people experienced mild, moderate or severe gambling harm in New Zealand.

Given the harmful nature of pokie machines we strongly advocate for a true sinking lid policy with no relocations [of pokie machines], he said.

People with gambling problems sometimes isolated themselves from family and friends, it impacted on the financial security of their families, and it could lead to crime, prostitution and family violence.

There was no evidence to suggest a sinking lid policy would reduce grants funding to the community, Yeo said.

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Southland District gambling problem worse than reported, councillors hear - Stuff