Pokie takings down

29 April 2015

Less money was spent on pub and club pokies in the first three months of 2015 compared with the last quarter of 2014, according to figures compiled by the Department of Internal Affairs.

Spending dropped from $210.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2014 to $193.2 million in the first quarter of 2015. This drop in spending between the fourth and first quarters of calendar years is in line with annual trends.
Non-casino GM spending by Society Type – January - March 2015

Society Type	Total GMP Quarter	% of Total
Non-Club	168,740,937.57	87.3%
Sports Clubs	3,784,091.32	2.0%
Chartered Clubs	14,759,122.79	8.2%
RSAs	5,930,608.97	3.1%
Total Club	24,473,823.08	12.7%
Total All	193,214,760.65	100.0%

The spending is captured through the electronic monitoring of non-casino gaming machines (EMS), which became fully operational in March 2007, enabling the Department to track and monitor operations, ensure the integrity of games and the accurate accounting of money. Licence holders between Q4 2014 and Q1 2015 were static at 312, venues declined from 1287 to 1277 and the number of gaming machines decreased from 16,717 to 16,614.

Further information, including numbers of venues, machines and expenditure by territorial authority and changes in the quarter, is available from the Department’s Gaming Statistics web page. The figures are based on territorial authority boundaries, including Auckland City.

Media contact:
Trevor Henry, Senior Communications Adviser, Department of Internal Affairs
Ph 04 495 7211; cell 021 245 8642