Pokie spending and numbers continue to drop

Pub and club gaming machine expenditure in the year ended June 2014 fell 2.4 per cent from $826.3 million to $806.2 million. There were also fewer licence holders, gambling venues and gaming machines compared with 12 months earlier. Licence holders fell from 351 to 329, gambling venues declined from 1356 to 1321 and the number of gaming machines decreased from 17,534 to 17,130.

Figures from the Department of Internal Affairs also show that spending by pokie gamblers in pubs and clubs rose between the first and second quarters of 2014, from $192.8 million to $200.7 million. This increase is in line with annual trends between the first and second quarters of the calendar year.

The spending is captured through the electronic monitoring of non-casino gaming machines (EMS), which became fully operational in March 2007, enabling the Department to track and monitor gambling operations to ensure the integrity of games and the accurate accounting of money

Non-casino GM spending by Society Type - April-June 2014

Society Type Total GMP Quarter % of Total Non-Club $174,267,735.42 86.8%

Sports Clubs $3,951,021.50 2.0%

Chartered Clubs $16,001,487.03 8.2%

RSAs $6,506,325.38 3.2%

Total Club $26,458,833.91 13.2%

Total All $200,726,569.33 100.0%

Further information, including numbers of venues, machines and expenditure by territorial authority and changes in the quarter, is available from the Department’s Gaming Statistics web page at: www.dia.govt.nz. The figures are based on territorial authority boundaries, including the new Auckland City.

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