Dunedin City Council is exploring how to expand a sinking lid policy on gaming machines to the whole city after agreeing on Monday to drastically reduce the number of poker machines in south Dunedin from 168 to 50.
The recommendation came from a council panel that heard evidence of the harm caused by a high number of the machines in the South Dunedin area.
Dunedin city council staff and councillors debate power to crack down on pokies. Photo: RNZ
But during the debate councillors unexpectedly called for the sinking lid policy to be applied to the whole of Dunedin. Cr Lee Vandervis said gambling harm knows no boundaries and it makes no sense morally to target just one area.
Councillors unanimously agreed to have staff investigate cutting machine numbers in the rest of the city.
