MARIBYRNONG Council has moved to crack down on the number of pokies being deliberately introduced to disadvantaged areas.
A new Local Planning Policy for Electronic Gaming Machines is aimed at protecting areas of social and economic disadvantage and ensuring more pokies aren’t introduced into busy shopping strips.
Maribyrnong has Melbourne’s third-highest losses per adult, with more than $56 million lost last year to the area’s 439 pokies machines — about $16 million in Braybrook alone. A study conducted as part of the policy noted many existing venues were located where there was a high clustering of social housing.
It found pokies offered benefits such as entertainment and employment but came with social costs including crime, job loss, depression, relationship breakdown and suicide.
The new policy aims to discourage placing pokies venues on sites where there is a concentration of shops, community centres or public transport hubs. In introducing the policy, the council conceded the lack of a proper policy had cost it in its fight against the Edgewater Club development that will include 70 relocated machines.
Mayor John Cumming said the council acknowledged the impact of gaming venues in the area. “This is a strategic approach which will yield far better and consistent results than differential rates, while still minimising the negative impacts on communities at risk,” he said.
“Including the policy in the planning scheme will ensure council has a policy with statutory weight to assess future planning applications for the placement of gaming machines in our city.”
Maribyrnong has a cap of 511 pokies allowed in clubs and hotels, meaning the new policy could guide where additional or relocated machines may appear.
The council will now ask Planning Minister Matthew Guy to include the planning policy in the Maribyrnong planning scheme.
Residents and stakeholders will then have a chance to comment.
Cr Cumming said Maribyrnong was unaffected by state government amendments to the Local Government Act limiting the rights of councils to charge differential rates for pokies venues as it had not gone down this path.
