Porirua councillors have voted to ban new gaming machines and venues in an effort to reduce the city’s disproportionate spend on gambling.
There are 156 pokie machines across 10 venues in Porirua, which earned almost $15.8m of profit in the last financial year.
The ‘sinking lid’ policy that’s been adopted will slowly cut that down by stopping any new Class 4 gaming venues from opening, or any new machines to be installed.
Porirua Mayor Anita Baker spoke to Corin Dann.