Money put into pub pokies dropping

File photo / NZ Herald

The amount of money put into pokie machines outside of casinos is continuing to drop.

Latest figures from the Department of Internal Affairs show pub and club gaming machine expenditure has dropped 2.5 per cent in the last year, from $826.3 million to $806.2 million.

There are also fewer licence-holders, gambling venues and gaming machines.

This year, licence-holders fell from 351 to 329, gambling venues declined from 1356 to 1321 and the number of gaming machines decreased from 17,534 to 17,130.

Figures also showed that spending by pokie gamblers in pubs and clubs rose in the first and second quarters of 2014, from $192.8 million to $200.7 million.

Internal Affairs said this was in line with annual trends between the first and second quarter 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.