One district councillor is also questioning what impact the changes will have on small communities.
At a council meeting last week, the Central Otago District Council decided it would consult its community over its gambling and board venue policy.
The proposal was to change and have a sinking-lid policy. The council has a legislative baseline approach at present.
Under a sinking-lid policy, the council would not consent to any new venues being established in the area and when an existing venue closed, consent would not be given for another to open.
Venues could not increase the number of gaming machines, nor could they relocate. Over time, this would lead to a decrease in the number of venues and machines and, theoretically, poker machine gambling-related harm.
The council report said under a sinking-lid policy there was a risk the council would be perceived to be further restricting funding to community groups in an already tight economic environment.
"Furthermore, gambling societies are not required to return grants to their community of origin. There is a risk these groups may reduce their return in the Central Otago community," the report said.
In Central Otago, gaming machine profit has increased 35.5% since the 2015 baseline.
The Central Otago district recorded $4,594,254.19 in electronic gaming machine profit, or expenditure, in 2023.
This was a 3.7% increase or $163,020.34 rise in 2022.
Central Otago reflected a similar downward trend in the number of machines and venues. There were 107 machines in Central Otago at nine venues, operated by five different trusts.
From 2019-23, a total of $2,965,829 had been granted to community groups.
Central Otago had an increase in profit per machine of 51.2% from the 2015 baseline. This was below the national average of 58.2%.
Cr Stu Duncan said at the meeting many of the smaller venues in the country areas of the district would struggle to stay open if they lost their poker machines.
The biggest beneficiaries were small community groups, which would have issues without the funding.
The policy would have no impact on online gambling, which had a much bigger reach, he said.
Mayor Tamah Alley was taken aback by some of the figures mentioned, especially that $4.5 million was being spent in Central Otago on gambling machines every year.
A lot of people were gambling who could not afford it, she said.
