{"id":25783,"date":"2021-12-21T13:15:27","date_gmt":"2021-12-21T16:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=25783"},"modified":"2026-04-23T12:43:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T15:43:55","slug":"new-zealands-hutt-city-council-limits-pokies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/new-zealands-hutt-city-council-limits-pokies","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand’s Hutt City Council limits pokies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hutt City Council has approved a proposal to limit the number of slot machines in the district, a measure that was supported by the Problem Gambling Foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

New Zealand.- The Hutt City Council has unanimously voted for a\u00a0\u201csinking lid” policy<\/strong>, which means it will allow no new slot machines in the future. Nor will the council allow the establishment of any new gambling venues in buildings or facilities it owns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hutt City currently has 434 slot machines in 29 venues<\/strong>. Andr\u00e9e Froude, director of marketing and communications for the Problem Gambling Foundation, praised the council’s decision, saying it had raised the bar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Scoop, she said: \u201cNot only has the Council committed to ensuring that no new venues or pokie machines can be added to the community, but under its new policy, venues will not be able to relocate or merge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, she said the sinking lid policy didn’t go far enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said: “Sinking lid policies rely on a venue closing and that doesn\u2019t happen very often, and if it does, it isn\u2019t usually in the areas where pokie numbers need to reduce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMany councils are feeling hamstrung that they can\u2019t do more to reduce pokie numbers in their communities, particularly the poorer areas, and to reduce the reliance of community and sports groups on funding from pokie machines.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other districts plan to limit the number of gaming machines<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Selwyn District Council\u2019s draft\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>Gambling Venue Policy 2022<\/strong>\u00a0proposes limiting the number of pokies to 124. The policy has been passed for consultation. The limit proposed is the number of currently approved machines in the district, which basically means that no additional machines would be able to be approved and that the number would remain flat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In June,\u00a0Mackenzie Council<\/a>\u00a0also approved a proposal to reduce the number of slot machines in the district.\u00a0The process means that\u00a0when 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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hutt City Council has approved a proposal to limit the number of slot machines in the district, a measure that was supported by the Problem Gambling Foundation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":25797,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Hutt City Council has unanimously approved a \"sinking lid\" policy, prohibiting new slot machines and gambling venues, and preventing venue relocation or mergers, a measure supported by the Problem Gambling Foundation. This regulatory trend, also adopted by Selwyn and Mackenzie Districts, signifies a tightening of land-based gaming machine supply across New Zealand. The policy aims to reduce machine numbers over time, though its efficacy in targeting high-need areas is questioned.","focusai_entities":"Hutt City Council, Problem Gambling Foundation, Andr\u00e9e Froude, Selwyn District Council, Mackenzie Council","focusai_location":"New Zealand, Hutt City, Selwyn District, Mackenzie","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.95), investor_analyst (0.85), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Policy Efficacy?","query":"What is the projected long-term impact of 'sinking lid' policies on problem gambling rates and the financial viability of community organizations reliant on gaming machine funding in New Zealand?"},{"label":"Operator Strategy?","query":"How are existing land-based gaming operators in New Zealand adapting their business models and investment strategies in response to increasingly restrictive local council policies?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,156],"tags":[23911],"class_list":["post-25783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-regulation-news","tag-gambling-regulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25783","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=25783"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25804,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25783\/revisions\/25804"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}