KEY POINTS:
Two North Shore City councillors deny that their voting to keep the city's present limit of 52 gambling venues was a conflict of interest.
The Problem Gambling Foundation and other social agencies are outraged that councillors Kevin Schwass and Tony Barker took part in a council debate and vote on its gambling policy review.
Mr Schwass owns the Sin Bin Sports Bar which has 18 pokie machines. Mr Barker is a trustee of the Birkenhead Licensing Trust, which has pokies in its Slipp Inn bar.
They are members of the strategic management committee which threw out a staff recommendation to change the policy to reduce the cap from 52 to 48.
Instead, Mr Schwass moved that the status quo remain. This was endorsed by the council. "I don't have any conflict of interest," said Mr Schwass. "The rule of thumb is if I'm going to get any pecuniary interest I'd have to rule myself ineligible.
"It was nothing about turnover or anything like that. The fact is, I had knowledge of the gaming industry ... I don't feel that's any different to other members who have intimate knowledge of subjects such as heritage."
He said the bar had a licence to operate the machines and received a set fee from the machine owners, Lion Foundation, which controlled and distributed the proceeds.
Mr Schwass, New Zealand's "Hospitality Personality of 2004", said the debate was an opportunity for him to argue that the law to cap the number of machines made no difference in the number of problem gamblers.
He also saw pokie machines as entertainment for bar patrons. He thought it would be unfair to lower the cap and prevent someone else from offering them in any new establishment.
If the council had decided to change the policy, he said, it would have been obliged to do a city-wide public consultation on the move at a cost of $40,000 to $50,000.
Mr Barker said he was an unpaid member of a committee which allocated gambling profits. He was a trustee in 2004 when he took part in the council vote to bring in the present policy.
North Shore Mayor George Wood said that he accepted the councillors' assurances they had no pecuniary interest in the debate.
Problem Gambling Foundation chief executive John Stansfield said he was disappointed that North Shore had not followed Auckland City Council in bringing in a "sinking lid" policy. This means that every time a venue closes, its licence is cancelled and over time the number of machines reduces.
"We have received calls from people and groups on the North Shore who are saying this is a menace ... it's out of control."
On Friday a public forum about the council's gambling policy will be held at the Awataha Marae, Northcote.
It is organised by Hapai Te Hauora Tapui (Maori Public Health), the foundation and Waiwharariki Maori Women's Welfare League.
Hapai Te Hauora spokeswoman Te Rihia Manning said: "We want to encourage the community to participate in the decision making process regarding all facets of policy development."
She said the community must know about the impact that problem gambling had on families and communities.
