Curb on pokie money for racing 'Long Overdue'

Plans to put a halt to massive grants from pokie machines for the horse racing industry have been described as “a move in the right direction, but far too late in the day”, by gambling issues lobby group GamblingWatch.

GamblingWatch Co-ordinator Dave Macpherson said the Department, “and successive governments” have been alerted to the fact that very large amounts of pokie machine gambling proceeds have been ‘granted’ to Trotting and Racing clubs for many years, but “nothing had been done until now.”

“We believe that most fair-minded Kiwis think it is just plain wrong that money one form of gambling is being used to subsidise another.”

“It’s a no-brainer really; people don’t mind some money being used to support kids and community sports groups, or community centres and foodbanks, but they just can’t comprehend a system and a law that not only allows millions of dollars to be diverted to racing industry coffers, but actually seems to encourage it.”

“We call on the Government to remove the confusion, remove the legal loopholes and clearly ban the granting of a single dollar of pokie machine profits to any part of the racing industry.”

ENDS

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