The brick and mortar casino business in Wellington might be in for a bit of a shock as the local councilors have come up with a new way to try and tackle problem gambling. The policy that councilor Tamatha Paul came up with is called the “Sinking Lid” policy. This policy, once put into effect, would remove land-based slot machines from the capital city over a period of time. In essence, this policy demands that no new land-based casinos will be given a license to have pokies, while the pokie machines that already exist will not be allowed to be transferred to other casinos. Therefore, over time, the number of machines will be reduced.

The Changes They Want to Make

At the time of writing, there are 633 slot machines in Wellington. If we take the whole region into account and that number increases to say 938 before the policy is put in place then, according to Paul, their goal would be to decrease that by 87 over a specific period of time. The zones that would be impacted by this policy include Pukehinau, Lambton, Wharangi, and Onslow-Western. In addition to the aforementioned policy, Paul believes that a rule that was scrapped a while ago should be reinstated. This regulation states that gambling machines cannot be hosted in a venue that has not been designed specifically for that reason. In other words, any establishment in Wellington that is not a land-based casino would have to dispose of their slot machines – there will be no exceptions allowed.

So Is This the End of Gambling for Those in Wellington?

Well, at the moment this policy is only related to pokie machines as the councilors believe that it is these types of games that are causing an increase in the number of problem gamblers in Wellington.

It is easy to see why this is the case as when you sit down at a slot machine and get into it, you can easily lose track of just how much money you are spending. Furthermore, slot game developers are adding more and more exciting features to their slot games and this can definitely help lead to an addiction. The slot developers cannot be blamed for this though as they are influenced by the highly competitive nature of the industry that they are in. They need to come up with innovative bonus features if they want their games to become popular. A slot game that leaves anything to be desired nowadays is a slot game that will be forgotten in the blink of an eye.  

Therefore, as it is only pokie machines that are being taken into consideration, there will still be other table games that land-based casino players can play. Furthermore, they are not actually planning on getting rid of all of the slot machines that are in Wellington, so there will still be some that are available to play. However, even if they did take away all the physical slot machines in Wellington, it would not mean that casino players in this part of New Zealand would have to do without slot games as they could simply sign up with an online casino that accepts Kiwis and play slots from the comfort of their own home instead.

Online gambling is actually illegal in New Zealand, but the government are completely powerless to prevent their citizens from signing up with an online casino that is based outside the country and accepts New Zealanders. Luckily for Kiwis, there are plenty of fantastic online casinos around the world that have no qualms when it comes to accepting Kiwis. Therefore, the government could shut down all of the brick and mortar casinos in the country, but it would still not be enough to prevent Kiwis from playing slot machines or traditional table games such as poker, roulette, baccarat, and blackjack. Many of the online casinos that Kiwis can sign up with have fantastic bonuses too.

When you are gambling, whether it is online or at a brick and mortar casino, you always need to remember to gamble responsibly. Gambling is meant to be a fun activity, so if you find that you are no longer having fun, stop gambling and go an occupy your mind with something else. Furthermore, you should always set yourself a budget and once you have lost the money that you have set aside, you should stop gambling right away. Do not tell yourself that it is okay to spend another $10 as you will find that the $10 will quickly turn into $100.