COUNCIL’S decision to allow 50 more poker machines would increase problem gambling in Ballarat, a community organisation has said.
At its meeting on Wednesday, Ballarat City Council voted to allow 30 poker machines at a revamped Bended Elbow Hotel in Lydiard Street North.
It also voted not to oppose a Robin Hood Hotel application to the Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation to become a gaming venue, complete with 20 more machines.
Relationships Australia Ballarat manager Sue Yorston said the decision was disappointing.
“The impact on our citizens is likely to be that we will see an increase in the number of people who have problems with gambling because they have easier access to a venue,” Ms Yorston said.
But Councillor Des Hudson said the council’s gaming policy aimed to concentrate poker machines within the Ballarat CBD. “We are doing this to reduce the amount of harm, to reduce easy accessibility to a gaming facility just around the block,” Cr Hudson said. He said Ballarat was still below its state government cap of 663 machines.
Ms Yorston said although the council decision was in line with VCAT policy, the guidelines were more Melbourne based.
The Bended Elbow Hotel, she said, was located near the railway station making it a high pedestrian area contravening the council’s framework.
“It is also next door to the Reid boarding house whose cliental is most often people on lower income,” Ms Yorston said.
Cr Ben Taylor said poker machines in Ballarat were a real challenge.
“I have called them a leech on society and I still do but we have to work within a framework and that framework is not set by us but by the state government,” Cr Taylor said.
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