The Tasman District Council’s gambling venues policy review was tabled at a council committee meeting last week. The review proposes to maintain the council’s sinking lid policy, which prevents any new pokie venues or machines, and to add a ban on new standalone TAB venues. In 2025, Tasman generated about $10m in Class 4 gambling losses and received about $2m in community grants, as reported by The Press. The draft gambling venues policy will be open for consultation from October 29.
Under the Gambling Act rules, 40% of gaming machine profits are required to be returned to the community. Community policy advisor Giles Dodson told councillors the funds are pooled at a national level. Gaming societies such as Pub Charity and the Lion Foundation collect proceeds from Class 4 gambling, aggregate the money nationally, and then distribute it.
National pooling leaves Tasman with 20 percent return
The societies distributed about 40% of the gaming machine profits. Tasman was only receiving 20% of its gambling losses, or gaming machine profits, according to Dodson, and there was no requirement that the money be returned to the community where it was generated.
He said: “One way of looking at it is that there’s another 20% of headroom to go before Tasman receives its legitimate slice. But that’s not how the system works.” Motueka ward councillor Kerryn Ferneyhough said the statistic was both interesting and alarming.
Dodson also said gaming machines were concentrated in medium to high deprivation areas, yet the distribution of funds typically went to middle to well-off communities. Despite a reduction in the number of machines, there had not been a reduction in grants, which he said indicated more intensive use of those machines.
Council proposes TAB ban and grant review call
Dodson said there were no standalone TAB venues in Tasman at present. He said there were unlikely to be in the future as the TAB was “heading in a different direction”, having partnered with an offshore gambling multinational and applied for an online casino license.
Team leader community policy Alan Bywater said if people didn’t apply from the region, then the money would not come back to the region. He added: “Potentially there are a number of groups that maybe have the opportunity to apply for eligible projects which are not currently doing so.” Councillor Timo Neubauer asked that the council authorise officers to write to the Department of Internal Affairs requesting a review of the distribution of grants from gambling profits, “with a view to ensuring that grant funding more fairly reflects the contributions” made by the Tasman community, as reported by The Press.