Poker machine spending in Brimbank is “sickening”, the council’s chairman of administrators John Watson freely admits.
His comments come as the council joins an alliance aimed at “making pokies safer” by reducing maximum bets to $1 and giving communities greater control over where poker machines are located.
The National Alliance for Gambling Reform, which combines church, welfare and community groups and local government peak agencies, will launch a campaign later this year that will lobby for legislative changes to reduce and minimise the harm caused by pokies.
Mr Watson said a Municipal Association of Victoria forum early last month, which invited councils to join the alliance, had been a sobering experience.
“It was a sickening feeling to be at that forum and be a leader in Victoria [for poker machine losses],” he said. “It’s pretty sad. We can’t get rid of them, we’re stuck with them. But we have to find a better way to live with them.”
Brimbank punters have been the state’s biggest losers for the past eight consecutive years, putting $141.6 million into Brimbank’s 946 machines in the past financial year alone. Administrator Jane Nathan said it was unfortunate that local punters played the pokies despite knowing they wouldn’t get a return.
Mr Watson said the new alliance would give councils more resources to educate communities on the risks of playing the pokies and would create a stronger voice to lobby other levels of government.
Lead West chief executive Craig Rowley described this year’s figures as “sad and very unhealthy”.
