Sunbury will be subject to a cap on gaming machines after the state government moved to extend the current Hume limit across the rest of the municipality.
The changes to the Gaming Machine Arrangements Bill were announced by Gaming and Liquor Regulation Minister Marlene Kairouz last week in a bid to reduce gambling-related harm.
The Hume-wide restrictions come after the municipality had the state’s sixth highest level of gaming expenditure last year at $105.7 million.
Up until now, Tullamarine, Broadmeadows, Coolaroo, Fawkner and Campbellfield were the only suburbs in Hume to have limits on the number of machines.
The caps, applied in October, 2006, meant a ratio of no more than 10 gaming machines to 1000 adults in the area was permitted.
It is not yet known how many gaming machines will be allowed in Sunbury under the new cap.
There are currently 230 gaming machines in Sunbury across five different venues.
In the year to June 30, these machines collected $18.5 million.
Earlier this month the Hume council moved to push for state gambling reforms.
The reforms Hume was seeking, such as poker machine redesign, were not addressed in last week’s bill.
