BENDIGO’S poker machines are consuming almost $130,000 a day and are on track for a record spend of almost $47 million this financial year.
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Bendigo’s 547 poker machines consumed $39.5 million from
July 1 to April 30 this year,
$1.3 million more than during the same time last year.
The spend equates to $129,578 a day or $236 for each machine daily.
If Bendigo’s machines match 2011’s June and May spends this year, a record $46.8 million will have gone through the municipality’s pokies.
The 2008-09 financial year holds the record of $46.5 million.
Greater Bendigo has 10 venues with poker machines.
Sandhurst ward Cr James Reade said this year’s poker machine expenditure reinforced the council’s calls for the state government to reduce its cap to prevent more pokies entering Bendigo.
Cr Reade said it was time governments reformed their funding models to ensure development didn’t come on the back of problem gamblers.
“We shouldn’t be funding future development on problem gamblers,” he said. “If we have to rely on gamblers to fund things, it is a pretty sad state of affairs.”
Cr Reade said he was not against pokies, but the city had enough.
“It is this council’s view that we have enough and don’t need any more,” Cr Reade said.
“I urge the state government to listen to our views... the community has the same position to us around no more but we are constantly being ignored by the state and the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation.”
The council has lobbied the state government to reduce Greater Bendigo’s poker machine cap from 756 to 547. But the state government earlier ruled out reducing the cap and said it could be increased in line with population growth.
Bendigo Stadium has applied for another 30 poker machines to help fund a new stand-alone arena.
The state’s gaming regulator has approved the licences but the council has refused to issue a planning permit to install the machines.
The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal will hold a four-day hearing from July 9 to decide the matter.
Council planning and development director Prue Mansfield said a lawyer would represent the council at the hearing.
“We will have expert witnesses around the social implications of poker machines,” she said.
The council expects the VCAT ruling will set a precedent for future bids to bring more poker machines to Bendigo.
