Proposed changes to Tauranga’s gambling policy will not reduce gambling harm, a public health representative says.

Tauranga City Council is proposing to allow gambling venues to relocate away from residential areas, especially where there is high deprivation.

The current policy prevents venues from moving.

Gambling venues wanting to relocate would only be able to move to commercial or industrial zones that are more than 100 metres away from residential zones, with a deprivation index of 8 to 10.

The deprivation index measures an area’s socioeconomic status, with 10 being the least well-off.

Toi Te Ora public Health representative Rachel Jordan said gambling is a significant public health issue that causes harm to individuals, whānau and communities.

“We are concerned that the changes proposed by the council will not reduce gambling harm in Tauranga.”

Allowing venues to relocate would undermine the sinking lid policy to reduce gambling harm, she said.

A sinking lid policy meant when a Class 4 (pokie) gambling venue closed, a consent wouldn't be given to re-open another venue.

Jordan spoke at the Draft Gambling Venues Policy hearings at the Strategy Finance and Risk Committee meeting on Monday.[SUBS 13/11]

“Electronic gambling machines are located mostly in higher deprivation areas in Tauranga, and gambling related harm affects our most vulnerable people in our communities,” Jordan said.

Tauranga has 32 venues with pokie machines and four TABs. As of June, there were 469 pokie machines in the city.

“We recommend that council strictly enforces its sinking lid policy and does not allow relocation of venues and gambling machines,” Jordan said.

The red areas are where gambling venues cannot move too. Photo: TCC.

Commissioner Stephen Selwood said by not allowing venues to relocate to lower deprivation areas, licensed venues could cling on in high deprivation areas.

Jordan responded by saying she would prefer venues were not able to move.

“Our preference is to ensure that if venues need to relocate for whatever reason, they actually are unable to, to reduce the number of venues and machines over time.”

However, Jared True, of the Gaming Machine Association of New Zealand, said the relocation proposal was “entirely reasonable”.

“We fully support the relocation provision being expanded to enable us to consider moving our venues in any circumstances, when the move to the new site is more desirable from a harm minimisation perspective.”

Currently, venues could only move if there was a catastrophic event, like a fire, flood or earthquake, said True.

“If we were to leave the relocation policy as it is, we're not going to see machine numbers reduce.”

Having pokie machines at a business was “extremely valuable” and made up around 40-45 percent of that business’ profits he said.

Around 63 per cent of Tauranga's gambling venues are in medium to high deprivation areas.

“We should ... enable those venues to move to new suitable areas.”

Mount Business Association representative Claudia West said they didn’t want gambling venues to increase significantly in downtown Mount. Photo: Alisha Evans/ SunLive.

Mount Business Association  representative Claudia West said relocation requests should be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Social and emergency housing should be factored into where gambling venues could relocate to.

Some social housing in the Mount business area was a three minute walk from a gambling venue, she said.

Any decision should look at how many gambling venues are in an area and the distance to emergency and social housing, schools and marae, said West.

Mount mainstreet area already had two gambling venues and the association didn’t want this to increase significantly, she said.

The committee will hold deliberations on the policy on December 4.

Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air.