Last week there was quite a bit of media coverage around some pretty dodgy goings on within some of the pokie trusts. It’s time for the government to get stuck in and clean this mess up once and for all. The Gambling Act of 2003 was a step in the right direction, but there is still a way to go. Under the Act, the profits from pokie machines have to go back into the community for charitable purposes, but there are still too many rorts.
Recent revelations that gaming machine proceeds have been used to renovate a pokie room in a strip club, fund lavish meals in fancy restaurants, and encourage gaming venues to switch from one Trust to another prove the point pretty clearly. It’s time to put much more stringent requirements around how the money can be spent so that as much as possible goes back into local community groups and clubs. Times are tough and they really need the money.
Both the current Internal Affairs Minister Nathan Guy and his predecessor Richard Worth acknowledged the problem. It’s time for them to do something about it. They could start by progressing the Gambling Amendment Act currently on the Order Paper and taking a close look at some of the amendments our Green colleague Kevin Hague has put forward. Doing nothing isn’t an option.
That Bill ain’t going unaware for a long time. National has parked it.
Agreed!
Darn, I made this comment before a hem was moderated through.
Agreed to the post! 
certainly is parked at the moment: last progress was 12 months ago when the 2nd Reading stage was unanimously agreed. Chris H. led the debate for Labour.
Since then, no progress. For information, the Government organises its own business on hte Order Paper – it chooses what to do each day.
In most cases the money goes to an excellent cause. The cases of lavish meals and strip club capital are few and far between and that certainly needs noting.
On the topic of the Governments Order Paper, most of the time, is blimmin messed up, has been ever since Gerry was in charge of it!
Best of luck with the bill.
I just hope that the gaming money is put back into the localities from which they were collected. One way for that to happen would be for the distribution to charity to be delegated to local authorities: to distribute the amount collected in their area for the benefit of people in that area. The licensing trusts operate a sort of parallel charity for their pokies (at least in West Auckland) that does this already.
My fear is that if you have a national body receiving and distributing everything then it will be inefficient and unfair and you will end up with the same sort of inter-provincial racing club jack-up like we do now where money is funneled from the poor people and areas to the wealthy interests and areas. Only this time the wealthy interests won’t be the South Island racing clubs they will be the national institutions in Wellington that are patronised by the wealthy interests (for example). However, the bureaucrats – local or central – would be better than what we have now: middlemen, conflicts of interest, lobbyists, alcohol, a sleazy system.
Even at the local level there were serious rorts , but at a small scale. Like social sports team funding going into the bar tab. The very recent situation of pokie funding at Auckland Zoo, where the trust has asked for its $ 0.5 mill back, shows the system is working but that a major public institution would resort to underhand tactics is a worry
Nothing like draining the pockets of the poor who can ill afford it to fund community good works.
“Recent revelations” ? You must be kidding, surely. I know of people who have made serious money from pokies and this has been going on for a long time. Although I enjoy gambling myself and occasionally play the pokies I think they are a social evil.
Unfortunately, we are now at a stage where so many sports and social groups rely on the grants from gaming.
So true Loota.
Why should these groups get handouts.
Do they buy the machines, provide premises
and pay for the maintenance.
They should raise the money themselves
by providing something of value or since
what they are doing is so worthy they can
front up with their own money.
People have fun with the pokies so leave
them as much in their pockets as possible
by increasing the payout % which is
criminally small.
Why the heck should gamblers have to fund sport.
People would play sport regardless of whether
people gamble or not.
Since when is nzracing a do good community type org…
Too much of the cut is finding its way into prize pools for wealthy gamblers that own racehorses…how efficient is IA at tracking funding payouts and finding conflict of interests…Not gonna mention any names but what the heck is a prominant racing club official doing sitting on a major trust board….this is dodgy……Millions of dollars are being syphoned and politicians dont give a toss…wonder why that is….Why doesnt the govt just take over pub gaming and hand the dosh out…….its a win win for the govt….