Bay punters feed $32m into pokies

The amount Hawke's Bay punters are spending on pokies is continuing to slide, falling more quickly than the national average.

Latest figures from the Department of Internal Affairs show the amount Hawke's Bay gamblers dropped into pub and club pokies in the year to June fell 3.5 per cent from $33.1 million the previous year to $32 million.

Meanwhile, the national spend dropped 2.5 per cent to $806.2 million.

Central Hawke's Bay recorded the greatest local drop in spending, 6.3 per cent, while Hastings dipped 1 per cent.

The number of gaming venues in the region dropped from 50 to 47, while the number of machines fell from 716 to 698 year-on-year.

Nationally, 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," she said.

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 decrease in expenditure would mean more community groups who relied on the grants would have to come up with more sustainable ways to fund themselves.

Figures also showed that spending by gamblers on pokies machines in pubs and clubs 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 between the first and second quarters of the calendar year.

The spending was captured through the electronic monitoring of non-casino gaming machines.

This enabled the department to track and monitor gambling operations, to ensure the integrity of games and the accurate accounting of money, it said.

APNZ