Cr Perkins tried to get the council to amend its gambling venues policy by introducing a sinking lid on the number of pokies in the district, but failed.
Instead, the council decided to maintain the current cap of 140 machines, and also gave the Totalisator Agency Board right to have them in its betting shops.
The council has to review its gambling venues policy, which sets numbers and rules on venues with pokie machines, every three years. It has just completed that, including calling for and listening to public submissions.
Cr Perkins was struggling to come to grips with the size of problem gambling in the district and said a distinction needed to be drawn with that and the benefits of money from pokie machines given out in grants.
The Waitaki district was substantially above the national average for the number of machines, and he was not talking about removing them, but reducing the number.
It was hard for people once hooked on machines to get off them, which led to broken lives, broken families and, in some instances, crime, Cr Perkins said.
However, other councillors opposed the move, including Cr Jim Hopkins who said pokie machines were only a small part of gambling. Others, such as on the Internet, paid no tax and made no contribution to the community.
Cr Craig Dawson said income from poker machines had more benefits than disadvantages.
Funds distributed were very valuable to the district.
Cr Gus Young said taking away pokie machines would not fix problem gambling because there were lots of other ways to gamble.
