{"id":15638,"date":"2021-03-09T15:24:20","date_gmt":"2021-03-09T15:24:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=15638"},"modified":"2026-04-23T21:15:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T00:15:44","slug":"new-zealand-district-council-seeks-controlled-pokie-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/new-zealand-district-council-seeks-controlled-pokie-expansion","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand: district council seeks controlled pokie expansion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The \u014ctorohanga District Council wants to change its \u201csinking lid\u201d policy on pokies in favour of a controlled increase in venues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">New Zealand.- The <strong>\u014ctorohanga District Council <\/strong>had recently voted in favour of changing its gambling policy in order to allow a controlled increase in pokie venues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The new policy <strong>seeks to approve new venues on a case-by-case basis<\/strong>, replacing the former \u201csinking lid\u201d policy, that sought to gradually lower the number of pokie venues in the district.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Currently, there are <strong>23 pokies in the \u014ctorohanga District<\/strong>: 18 at the \u014ctorohanga Club and five at the Kawhia Hotel. The number has <strong>remained the same for the past two reviews<\/strong>, which occurs every three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The proposed change in policy would allow<strong> an increase in the number of Class 4 (non-casino) gaming venues and electronic gaming machines<\/strong> in the district.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The district&#8217;s proposal is going in the other way compared to other jurisdictions, such as Wellington, which last year launched<strong> <em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/nz-capital-considers-lower-cap-on-pokies\" target=\"_blank\">a consultation began to reduce the cap on pokie machines<\/a><\/em><\/strong> in the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">the Problem Gambling Foundation has criticised the move. Marketing and communications director Andree Froude said: &#8220;it completely c<strong>ontravenes the Gambling Act because what [the council] are wanting to do is increase the growth of gambling<\/strong>, which completely goes against the spirit of the Act.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The \u014ctorohanga District Council wants to change its \u201csinking lid\u201d policy on pokies in favour of a controlled increase in venues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"The \u014ctorohanga District Council in New Zealand has voted to replace its 'sinking lid' policy on Class 4 gaming venues with a new approach allowing a controlled, case-by-case increase in pokie locations and machines. This decision, which contrasts with other jurisdictions like Wellington, has drawn criticism from the Problem Gambling Foundation, citing contravention of the Gambling Act's spirit. The policy change permits an increase in the current 23 pokies across two venues.","focusai_entities":"\u014ctorohanga District Council, \u014ctorohanga Club, Kawhia Hotel, Problem Gambling Foundation, Andree Froude","focusai_location":"New Zealand, \u014ctorohanga District, Wellington, Kawhia","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.9), investor_analyst (0.85), supplier_vendor (0.75), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Economic Impact Assessment?","query":"What specific economic impact assessments or social impact studies informed the \u014ctorohanga District Council's decision to reverse its 'sinking lid' policy?"},{"label":"Responsible Gambling Framework?","query":"How will the \u014ctorohanga District Council's new 'case-by-case' approval framework for Class 4 gaming venues ensure robust responsible gambling provisions and mitigate potential societal harms, particularly given the Problem Gambling Foundation's criticism?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,154],"tags":[229,23911],"class_list":["post-15638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-legislation-news","tag-gambling","tag-gambling-regulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15638"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15653,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15638\/revisions\/15653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}