Gaming licences show big fall

The numbers of gambling licences has declined since the introduction of the Gambling Act 2003, meaning the law is achieving its aim to control the pastime, says the Department of Internal Affairs.

Since gambling licence numbers peaked in June 2003 - before the Act was introduced - gambling operators have declined 25 per cent from 699 to 526 by the end of last year, venues were down 18 per cent from 2122 to 1747, and gambling machines dropped from 25,221 to 21,343, a decline of 15 per cent.

"These figures indicate that the Gambling Act 2003 is achieving one of its purposes - controlling the growth of gambling," Internal Affairs deputy secretary Andrew Secker said.

"The trends started, or accelerated, after the Act was passed."

The drop in the numbers of operators was most significant in the non-club sector. "The number of these pub-based operators declined by a third, from 120 at June 2003 to 80 at December 2005," Mr Secker said.

Despite this drop in numbers, information provided to the department indicated that operators gave out record amounts of money to community purposes in both 2003-04 and 2004-05 - about $300 million in each year.

The Gambling Act introduced a much stricter licensing regime and reduced limits on the numbers of machines allowed in venues.

In general, venues licensed before October 17 2001 could have up to 18 machines but after that date they could only have up to nine.

The Act also gave local authorities the power to bring in policies preventing or limiting new venues and controlling the expansion of existing venues.

The licensing statistics follow recently released gambling spending figures for 2004-05, which showed that total spending on the main forms of gambling - racing and sports betting, Lotteries products, non-casino gaming machines and casinos - fell from the previous year.

Spending dropped by 0.6 percent from a record high of $2.039 billion in 2003/04 to $2.027 billion last year.

- NZPA