During the June quarter the gaming machine industry made $257 million in profits nationwide, while venues in south Auckland made $27m. Photo: Stuff / Bruce Mercer via LDR
A number of court cases have been quietly ticking away as an anti-pokie machine lobby group works to reduce the number of machines across the country.
The group - Feed Families Not Pokies Aotearoa - has had one big win, most recently in the Court of Appeal, and has other pieces of legal action in the works.
The Court of Appeal case confirmed the Department of Internal Affairs had allowed class 4 gaming machines to be moved to new premises under a work-around that by-passed local councils' own bylaws.
In 22 of 24 re-locations - it meant 18 machines stayed active for each venue, when without this work around they would have been required to get a new licence and only bring with them a maximum of nine machine.
This went on for a decades, with the reallocations rendering the councils' relocation and sinking lid policies ineffective.
Another case seeks to prove the Internal Affairs department allowed licences to operate gaming machines to be extended beyond the legal time frame, again, meaning council's relocation and sinking lid policies were never able to take effect.
The group's chairperson is David Hay.
