{"id":19823,"date":"2021-07-02T16:26:55","date_gmt":"2021-07-02T16:26:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=19823"},"modified":"2026-04-23T17:58:54","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T20:58:54","slug":"new-zealand-criticism-of-plan-to-make-pubs-pokies-turnover-public","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/new-zealand-criticism-of-plan-to-make-pubs-pokies-turnover-public","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand: criticism of plan to make pubs&#8217; pokies turnover public"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Gaming Machine Association of New Zealand (GMANZ) argues that pub-by-pub statistics on pokie machine turnover would be \u201ca virtual shopping list for armed robbers.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>New Zealand.- The industry has criticised plans from New Zealand authorities to <strong>openly publish pub-by-pub statistics for slot machine turnover<\/strong>\u00a0in order to allow communities to see how much money people spend on gambling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pub owners and the <strong>Gaming Machine Association of New Zealand<\/strong> (<strong>GMANZ<\/strong>) have criticised the plan and the Department of Internal Affairs&#8217; (DIA) decision to announce it without consultation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Stuff newspaper, the GMANZ argues<strong>\u00a0some pubs collect up to AU$100,000 a week<\/strong>\u00a0on their poker machines, and that if they openly published revenues, it would increase the risk of armed raids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>See also:&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/pokies-spend-sets-new-record-in-new-zealand-in-q4\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Pokies spend sets new record in New Zealand in Q4<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However,\u00a0<strong>the Problem Gambling Foundation praised the decision\u00a0<\/strong>has claimed that the statistics could lead some venues to lose their licences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Martin Cheer<\/strong>, chief executive of one of the biggest pokie trusts, said\u00a0<strong>the measure could be implemented once pubs become cashless<\/strong>, but to do it now would be a risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He warned that if a bartender gets injured or killed as a result of an armed robbery,<strong>\u00a0the DIA could be held legally responsible<\/strong>\u00a0if any link to the statistics could be shown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dave Robson<\/strong>, the DIA\u2019s new gambling director, said the move would allow communities to understand the amount of money put into &#8220;pokies&#8221; in their area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Mackenzie District Council<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>seeks controlled pokie reduction<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/new-zealand-district-aims-to-reduce-number-of-slot-machines\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Mackenzie District Council<\/a>&nbsp;has voted to update its current law to<strong>&nbsp;limit the number of slot machines, or \u201cpokies\u201d&nbsp;<\/strong>through the creation of a \u201csinking lid.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The process would mean that&nbsp;<strong>when a gambling venue closes it cannot be replaced by another<\/strong>, so the number of slots in the district will gradually be reduced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to media reports, the Mackenzie District has only 36 gambling machines in operation and the council is processing consent applications for another nine. The limit is currently 65.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The proposal would ultimately&nbsp;<strong>lower the number of poker machines to 45<\/strong>.&nbsp;<strong>Councillor Stuart Barwood<\/strong>&nbsp;said he would support the proposal, but only if it applies to businesses that close completely rather than change management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The proposal passed after a 3-2 vote<\/strong>&nbsp;and will go to public consultation before coming back to the council to be formally adopted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Gaming Machine Association of New Zealand (GMANZ) argues that pub-by-pub statistics on pokie machine turnover would be \u201ca virtual shopping list for armed robbers.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":19824,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"New Zealand authorities are facing significant industry opposition over plans to publicly disclose granular, pub-by-pub slot machine turnover data, with stakeholders citing heightened armed robbery risks and potential legal liabilities for the Department of Internal Affairs. Concurrently, the Mackenzie District Council is advancing a 'sinking lid' policy to progressively reduce the number of gaming machines within its jurisdiction, signaling a tightening regulatory environment at the local level.","focusai_entities":"Gaming Machine Association of New Zealand (GMANZ), Department of Internal Affairs (DIA), Problem Gambling Foundation, Martin Cheer, Dave Robson, Mackenzie District Council, Stuart Barwood","focusai_location":"New Zealand, Mackenzie District","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (1.0), affiliate_publisher (0.7), product_ux (0.7), tech_data (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (0.8), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"GGR Disclosure Impact","query":"What specific governance frameworks or security protocols is the DIA proposing to mitigate the heightened armed robbery risk associated with publishing venue-specific GGR data, and what is the industry's projected cost of compliance?"},{"label":"Sinking Lid Policy","query":"How will the Mackenzie District Council's 'sinking lid' policy impact the long-term economic viability of existing gaming venues and the overall GGR contribution from the region, considering potential consolidation and reduced machine density?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,156,158],"tags":[229,23909],"class_list":["post-19823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-regulation-news","category-slider-home","tag-gambling","tag-slot-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19823","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=19823"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19837,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19823\/revisions\/19837"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}