Brimbank council plans to lobby the premier and treasurer to ask for more poker machine tax returns.
The council has also claimed that recent state government poker machine reforms would do little to reduce the harm posed by problem gambling in the community.
Mayor John Hedditch said the municipality, which has the highest loss to poker machines
in the state, could no longer afford the huge losses from poker machines going out of the area.
“Since 2015, gaming machines in Brimbank have snared more than $277 million,” Cr Hedditch said.
“These are losses that Brimbank simply cannot afford.
“It is particularly galling to think that each year about $60 million of these losses goes to feed the state government’s pokies addiction – this is money that could be spent providing healthier alternatives to gambling, such as cultural, arts, sporting and recreation facilities.”
The council will seek a meeting with Premier Daniel Andrews and Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison to discuss their concerns, as well as push for tighter reforms on the number of poker machines in Brimbank.
Under new reforms before Parliament, a cap would apply to all Brimbank suburbs, meaning no new machines could be introduced.
Cr Hedditch said this does not go far enough.
“There are already way too many poker machines in Brimbank,” he said. “We must reduce the current number of machines to turn back the tide of social and economic havoc that this number of pokies create.
“Council has called on the state government to take much stronger action to turn around the damage that pokies continue to wreak on our community.
“There are already 939 electronic gaming machines in Brimbank – we need to reduce the number of machines available and lower the betting limits to stem the tide of losses.”
