Hume council has begun a major push for gaming machine reform, after it was revealed pokies swallowed more than $100 million within the municipality last year.
The council is pushing for a number of changes to state legislation, including incentives for pokies venues to remove their machines and poker machine redesign, such as limiting maximum bets to $1 as the Productivity Commission recommends.
The council will ask the Municipal Association of Victoria’s state council to call on the Victorian Parliament to legislate for policy reform at the association’s state council meeting next month.
Reducing pokies venue opening hours from the current 20 hours a day will also be part of the council’s request.
The push by the council was discussed at last week’s council meeting, following a suggestion from the Alliance for Gambling Reform.
Council acting director planning and development Michael Sharp said the council was addressing the impacts of gambling after Hume had the sixth highest level of gaming expenditure in the state last year.
“Any future increase of gaming machines and more losses will put added pressure and strain on our residents who are already experiencing hardship,” Mr Sharp said.
“Research shows that for every one problem gambler, there are potentially seven people who are adversely affected.”
Poker machines at Hume’s 14 gaming venues collected $105,766,409.57 in the year to June 30.
Five of those venues are in Sunbury, which accounted for $18,582,731 of the poker machines spend. Sunbury’s Royal Hotel made up the majority of Sunbury’s pokies expenditure, taking in $5,667,863 from its 31 machines.
Sunbury’s Olive Tree Hotel gathered $5,372,084 from 43 machines and Sunbury Bowling Club collected $3,898,810 from
78 machines. The 38 machines at Sunbury Football Social Club claimed $1,884,697 and the 40 at Sunbury United Sporting Club took $1,759,277.
In the Macedon Ranges, $9,526,014 was spent on pokies in the past financial year.
