Mr Batley said the establishment made a conscious decision to limit the amount people were able to withdraw to use on their poker machines.
"Our minimum is $10 and our maximum is $60 and we have a very low float. Our pokie float is only X amount of dollars and once we give that out, that's it. So people have to make a conscious decision to walk over to Bayfair or across the road.
"Without having to say to people 'you've had enough', we have implemented changes."
Mr Batley said the bar restaurant made a conscious effort to "increase the overall aesthetics" of its pokie loungeabout a year ago.
This, to a lesser degree, had changed the demographic seen in the establishment, he said.
A Tauranga bar owner, who spoke on condition they were not identified, said they too had seen a decrease in the overall use of poker machines but there were still spikes in late nights and benefit days.
"You're always going to get people coming in, so we have limits and don't accept credit because that encourages people to gamble more."
Nationally, 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.
Problem Gambling Foundation marketing and communications director Andree Froude said it was "great" to see the numbers continuing to drop.
"It reflects an increase in community awareness about the harm that pokies cause."
Pokies contributed overwhelmingly to problem gambling, with more than 70 per cent of those seeking help doing so because of the machines, she said.
But the drop in spending would mean more community groups that relied on the grants would have to come up with other ways to fund themselves.
Figures also showed that spending by pokie gamblers in pubs and clubs throughout the country rose in the first and second quarters of 2014, from $192.8 million to $200.7 million.
However, Internal Affairs said this was in line with annual trends for the first and second quarters. The spending was captured through the electronic monitoring of non-casino gaming machines.