District gamblers lift spend on pokies

Wairarapa gamblers outlayed $1.8 million on the pokies in the three months to September - a 5.7 per cent increase in gambling spend.

Gamblers in Masterton spent just over $1.06 million, gamblers in South Wairarapa spent $395,000 and in Carterton $373,000 went into pokies, according to statistics released by the Department of Internal Affairs.

All districts had an increase in spending for the quarter, Masterton's $58,000 increase the highest.

Spending in Wairarapa as a whole increased by 5.7 per cent on the quarter ending June 2012.

Gaming machine expenditure nationally for the same time decreased by 1.9 per cent from $862.2 million to $845.5 million.

Masterton District Councillor Lyn Patterson said the three Wairarapa councils passed their gambling venues policy a few months ago.

This means there is a capped numbers of venues which can have gaming machines in the region, and a cap on the number of the machines.

If these venues decide not to have gambling machines anymore, they can only be replaced under exceptional circumstances.

"I'm not surprised it's [gambling spend] gone up but it's really disappointing that it has," said Mrs Patterson.

"I think it's acknowledged that gambling is harmful ... anything we can do to restrict that has to be a good thing."

The number of gaming machines in the country's 1390 pubs and clubs decreased just under 2 per cent from 18,167 to 17,827.

There were 19 fewer gaming machine venues in the country compared with a year earlier.