Profits from Kawerau’s electronic gambling machines continue to rise year by year in spite of a drop in the number of machines.
The Bay of Plenty town also continues to fall well short in receiving its share of community grants from these profits.
Kawerau District Council recently carried out a social impact assessment in the lead up to renewing its gambling policy.
It showed that the council’s sinking lid gambling policy had been effective in reducing the number of gambling machines but profits derived from gambling in the district continued to rise.
The policy, which did not allow for any new gambling venues or machines to be consented, has reduced numbers of machines from 54 across four venues in 2017 to 36 machines across two venues currently.
Kawerau had no TAB venues.
However, total gaming machine profits generated from the district in 2023 was more than $3.1 million. This equated to an average of $546 for each adult, aged over 18 years and living in Kawerau. In 2024, this was estimated to have risen to more than $571 per adult.
A graph showed quarterly profits had risen steadily since 2015, from about $500,000 per quarter to just below $800,000 per quarter, driven by an increase in the profits for each machine.
Kawerau also generated the third highest gaming machine profits per gaming machine in New Zealand for the month of June 2024, at $22,250.
At a full council meeting last week, councillor Warwick Godfery said the report was “not a good read”.
He asked what counselling services were provided in Kawerau for those affected by gambling harm.
Regulatory and planning group manager Michaela Glaspey said while there were several national helplines, there were no face-to-face providers of gambling harm counselling in Kawerau.
“I do understand that [Tūwharetoa ki Kawerau Hauora] used to provide gambling counselling, but the person who provided that is no longer there.”
Mayor Faylene Tunui noted that the nearest face-to-face service was in Rotorua, “not a dissimilar distance as to Tauranga from some other services”.
A comparison of profits per gaming machine across the Bay of Plenty showed that last year, Kawerau gaming machines had the second highest average profits per machine at $20,214, behind Tauranga City with $21,817. The lowest was Ōpōtiki district at an average profit of $11,400 for each of its 57 machines across four venues.
Shortfall in return to Kawerau community
Gaming societies were required to distribute a minimum of 40% of their net proceeds through distribution of community grants but there was no requirement for those grants to be made in the same district the profits were derived from.
Of the profits made from Kawerau in 2023, a 40% share would have been $1,269,524, however, total grants to Kawerau from gaming societies was $640,006.
A letter the council received from The Lion Foundation, which operated 18 machines out of Cayman Sports Bar in Kawerau, said its aim was to return at least 90% of the funds back to the community of origin and the other 10% to national organisations, but this was reliant on it receiving eligible funding applications.
The foundation acknowledged that volunteer-based community organisations did not always have the ability to navigate the process involved in applying for the funding. It had tried to mitigate this by running educational webinars, interactive Q&A sessions and engaging with council representatives.
At the recent council meeting, councillors opted to continue with its sinking lid policy.
It also merged its two gambling related policies, the Gambling Venues Policy and the Board Venue Policy into one policy, instructing staff to make any amendments to maintain the focus on reducing gambling harm through the reduction in machine numbers.
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