The licence allowing gambling activities at Timaru’s Town and Country Club has expired, forcing the venue to cease all gambling operations until it obtains a new licence.

A Department of Internal Affairs spokesperson confirmed the club’s licence to operate gambling activities at its Douglas St property had expired. The licence expired at the end of September. “On that basis, we have advised the club that it must cease all gambling operations.

“The club can apply for a new operators licence should it wish to restart its gambling activities,” the spokesperson said.

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As of Wednesday, the Department confirmed it had not yet received an application from the club to renew the licence.

Electronic gaming machine operator licences are assessed and renewed on an annual basis, to ensure correct harm management and other controls are in place and working correctly, they said.

“This has been the case since the Gambling Act came into force in 2003, and Timaru Town and Country Club are aware of this as we have been working with them recently to ensure they demonstrate licencing requirements.”

The spokesperson said any organisations with an operator’s licence have a responsibility to submit a renewal application before the expiry date of their licence; this is a legislative requirement to continue operating gaming machines.

“Any applications received are assessed by a regulator and the licence issued if appropriate. In the case of not holding a licence, a new operator’s licence must be granted before gaming machines can be used.”

Timaru Town and Country Club general manager Vince Gardner confirmed the pokie machines at the club were not operating, and said they intended to “immediately” apply for a new gambling licence.

He said the previous licence expired at the end of September.

Figures released by the Department of Internal Affairs earlier this year, showed almost $12 million dollars was lost to pokie machines across South Canterbury in 2021, and Timaru machines accounted for most of that.

More than $10m, which equates to $28,000 a day, was spent on pokie machines in Timaru alone. This figure is the amount lost to machines, also known as gaming machine profit, and does not include any winnings paid out to gamblers.

In Timaru, $10,150,461 was lost at 166 pokie machines across 13 venues, 11 of which are located in medium to medium high deprivation areas.

That loss was up by $1.5m on 2020.

Timaru topped figures for annual per person spend on pokies for the whole Canterbury region, averaging $279.65 per adult, compared to a national average of $238.85 per adult.