Manukau recommendscontinuous sinking lid policy for gambling venues
Thenumber of gambling venues and machines in Manukau city looksset to fall following a decision by the Manukau CityCouncil’s Policy and Activities Committee today(29.11.07)
The committee will recommend to full council on13 December that a review of the Manukau City Gambling VenuePolicy be adopted.
The revised policy proposes tointroduce a continuous sinking lid policy on any newgambling venues in the city. If approved no licences fornew gambling venues will be issued by the council even ifthe number of venues reduces. This means that if an existingvenue closes it will not be replaced with a new licencesomewhere else. Over time this is expected to reduce thenumber of gambling premises in the city though it isunlikely to ever eliminate them completely as many of theexisting licensed venues are well-establishedpremises.
Councillor Dick Quax. Safe City PortfolioLeader is pleased with the recommendation which wasapproved after a long discussion.
“A section of ourcommunities is at risk from gambling activities in the city,and the revised gambling venue policy is a step in the rightdirection for creating a safe environment for futuregenerations.”
The number of venues operating in thecity has in fact already reduced: from 90 in 2003 to 71 asat September 2007. The number of machines has also reducedfrom 1172 to 996 * (* Department of InternalAffairs).
Earlier this year the council received 7537submissions in response to the revised draft policy when itwas made available for public comment. More than 7400submissions were proforma responses generated by campaignsrun in Otara and other parts of the city. Most of thesesubmissions requested that a sinking lid policy beadopted.
Fifty-eight written submissions supported amoratorium and/or sinking lid on venues and machine numbers. This group mainly represented organisations and individualswho deal with the harm caused by problem gambling. Thirtywritten submissions supporting the status quo (i e. 90venues) were from the clubs and organisations that rely ongrants from the gaming sector and from representatives ofthe gaming sector itself.
The Policy and ActivitiesCommittee heard oral submissions from 32 of the abovesubmitters earlier thismonth.
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