Proposed gambling venue policies
Auckland Council has drafted its New Zealand Racing Board (TAB) and Class 4 Gambling (Pokie) Venue Policies and we called for submissions on these proposed policies recently.
Submissions have now closed and Auckland Council is processing all the submissions. If you have indicated that you wished to speak on behalf of your submission, we will be in touch with you shortly. Hearing dates are being finalised and will be available as soon as possible.
The Gambling Act and the Racing Act require that councils have policies to regulate the establishment of new TAB venues and new Class 4 gambling venues in their area.
The Auckland Plan identifies the need to minimise gambling-related harm. These proposed policies are a tangible way for the community to have input into achieving this.
The two new policies will replace the existing policies of the seven previous councils in Auckland.
We proposed:
- Capping the number of TAB venues in Auckland at the existing number of 43.
- A region-wide sinking-lid policy for Class 4 venues – when a venue closes another one cannot open, so number of venues would gradually reduce.
- Not allowing Individual club venues to increase the number of gaming machines.
- Allowing club venues to merge as long as the number of machines in the new club is no more than five sixths of the total before the merger.
Background documents
You can find out more about how we propose to regulate these venues by reading the documents below.
More information
Find out more about the development of these policies including research on the impacts of gambling on the proposed gambling venue policies page.
If you have a question on the draft policies please email us or call us on 09 301 0101.