THE Indigo Shire has joined a statewide campaign in its determination to keep its home patch poker-machine free.
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Mayor Bernard Gaffney said having no pokies protected the community from the negatives of gambling so the shire had joined 30 Victorian councils in the Enough Pokies campaign.
“Large amounts of money are lost every day gambling on poker machines,” he said.
“We have to be extremely careful to protect the Indigo community and we support other councils in their battle to limit poker machines.
“The big operators have been attempting to grow their gaming revenue in recent years by moving more machines to the most vulnerable and disadvantaged communities.”
The campaign, launched in Melbourne last week, urges the government to give the gambling regulator binding guidance so it makes decisions in the public interest.
Of the 154 applications since July 2008, 93 per cent of decisions by the Victorian Commission for Liquor and Gambling Regulation have favoured the gaming operator.
“This is despite strong council and community objections in more than half of these applications,” Cr Gaffney said.
Candidates at the last council election were asked about their view of poker machines.
“Each councillor is opposed to the machines, so if there was an application the council would oppose it,” Cr Gaffney said. “We are so much better without them.”
Chairman of the Australian Churches Gambling Taskforce, Tim Costello, said greater efforts were needed to limit the damage of pokies.
“Each year, more than $2.5 billion is lost in pokies across Victoria,” he said.
“That’s almost $7 million a day out of the pockets of Victorians and into gaming machines.
“We need to strongly consider the damage that the pokies can do to people and to our communities.”