Wednesday, November 01, 2006

"The introduction of the Gambling Act three years ago has had little impact
on decreasing pokie machines in some regions in New Zealand and it's
obviously not working well, says a gambling lobby group. "Gambling Watch
coordinator David Macpherson said all New Zealand regions had shown a drop
in machines in the last three years with a nationwide decrease of 10.1 per
cent, but some regions were well below the average. "Southland and Waikato
both had a reduction of less than 4 per cent. ".However, in other regions
community concern about the harmful effects of pokie machines was having an
impact with numbers decreasing about 15 per cent, he said. .."