Councillors Trevor Maxwell and Charles Sturt abstained from voting, with Mr Maxwell taking no part in the debate due to his position as chairman of the New Zealand Community Trust for the Bay of Plenty, Waikato, Thames Valley and King Country.
The trust manages 93 pokie machines in Rotorua and Mr Maxwell told the Rotorua Daily Post he would not take part in any part of the decision making process due to his conflict of interest.
Mr Sturt said he'd rather not take up a position on any of the options until he had seen submissions and found out what the community wanted to do.
He said he had some sympathy with businesses that ran pokie machines and that if they had to move, for example, due to rising rents, the business may have to close if it could not take its machines with it.
The council's senior policy advisor Rosemary Viskovic said while the organisations that ran pokie machines had to give 40 per cent of their takings to the community, not all those funds went to the communities where the money was spent.
She said Rotorua had a higher number of pokie machines than the national average - 389 compared to the national average of 273 - and locals spent more on them compared to the national average.
But, the policy would not change existing rights and the council would not be able to shut any pokie venue down as the process could take some time under natural attrition.
Councillor Tania Tapsell said she wanted to take a tough stance on pokie machines due to the social harm they caused, with her thoughts echoed by Te Tatou o Te Arawa Board representative Eugene Berryman-Kamp who said the council should set an lower "aspirational target" to show the community it was serious about preventing social harm.
Councillor Karen Hunt said the process of removing pokie machines from the district could take some time and did not want to give the community false hope the council could shut down pokie machines immediately.
A recent independent survey of 496 Rotorua residents revealed the most popular form of gambling was "entering a New Zealand raffle like Lotto" - 67 per cent, followed by entering a competition or buying raffle tickets at 38.9 per cent and buying a scratch ticket like Instant Kiwi at 30.2 per cent.
Only 40 respondents, 8.1 per cent, had played a pokie machine outside a casino and of the respondents, the average spend over a six month period was $435.38.
The minimum spend was $1 and the highest $20,870.
Of those surveyed 81 respondents, 16.3 per cent, said they had been impacted by a problem gambler.
Proposed gambling policy changes
Adopt a "sinking lid" and no relocations policy
A limit would be set on the maximum number of pokie machines in the district
Businesses not allowed to move machines to new venues, unless under special circumstances
Limit TAB venues to existing sites
Limit pokie machine venues to existing sites
Public consultation begins April 28, ends May 29
Hearings and deliberations early June
Final adoption July 27