KEY POINTS:
Otara town centre rocked to the sound of a "Rise Up" concert yesterday to start a national campaign against problem gambling.
And as the campaign started, it was learned that a fun parlour in the town centre may be prosecuted for allegedly having unlicensed "toy" machines on its premises where they could be used by under-age gamblers,
The three machines involved were placed in Omni Videos in Bairds Rd last November by Auckland company Coin Entertainment.
Omni manager Ravin Sewak said yesterday the machines were on trial and he did not know that they were gambling machines.
He removed them five days after they went in when the Otara Gambling Action Group alerted the Internal Affairs Department.
A department spokesman said staff were still investigating the case with a view to prosecution.
The $1.3 million media campaign, funded by a levy on gambling outlets for the Health Sponsorship Council, is aimed at the 98 per cent of New Zealanders who are not problem gamblers but may want to do something about the problem.
"You can have a say," said Health Sponsorship Council chief executive Ian Potter. "Local authorities have the authority to decide how many poker machines should be in their areas."
Otara Gambling Action Group convenor Pesio Ah-Honi Siitia said her group had helped to keep Manukau down to the country's fifth-lowest tally of poker machines per 1000 people by constant monitoring and awareness-raising.
The group got the three "toy" gambling machines at Omni Videos removed within days, picketed a bar in Manurewa which took $1.8 million from local gamblers to give to racing in the South Island, and is now lobbying Manukau City Council to adopt a "sinking lid" policy on the number of pokies.
The city's current policy allows for up to 110 further machines. The policy is to be reviewed in June.
A similar group, Waitakere Association of Gambling Action, has helped keep Waitakere down to the second-lowest tally per head.
At the other end of the table, with the highest number of poker machines per head of population, Thames-Coromandel District Council has capped its machine numbers at one for every 60 dwellings.
That gives it 11 pokies for every 1000 people, more than twice the national average of five.
Environmental services manager Craig Birkett said the council would approve a new policy proposal to go out for consultation by May.
"There are some strong opinions on both sides," he said. "I do expect it to create quite a bit of discussion upstairs [around the council table], especially as it is an election year."
Problem Gambling Society analyst Adrian Straayer said only 14 of New Zealand's 73 local councils imposed caps equal to or less than their current pokie numbers when they were given power to control numbers in 2004.
Another 29 imposed notional caps above their current pokie numbers, and 28 did not impose caps at all. All must review their policies this year.
Coin Entertainment spokesman David Steen said he was not aware of the Omni Videos case, but his company supplied many "bowling alley" and "redemption" games where young players could win prizes.
The machines in the Omni case are understood to have been "redemption" games, which are not yet licensed in New Zealand.
Pokies' top five ...
Poker machines per 1000 people at December last year:
1. Thames-Coromandel 11
2. Kawerau 10.6
3. Kaikoura 9.6
4. Buller 8.9
5. Grey 8.8
... and the bottom five
69. Manukau 3.2
70. Chatham Islands 3.1
71. North Shore 3.1
72. Waitakere 2.5
73. Selwyn 2.4
Sources: Internal Affairs Department, Statistics NZ.
