Online gambling

The "sloppy" way a government department handled pokie machine venue applications could lead to the first big test of Manukau City Council’s new gambling venue policy.

Manurewa councillor Daniel Newman says he finds it incredible the Internal Affairs Ministry didn’t bother to conduct an onsite inspection when granting five applications to extend venue licences to the South Auckland Charitable Trust.

"It really is a complete dog’s breakfast to extend the licence to operate pokie machines five times without any site visit," Mr Newman says.

The trust has been operating 19 pokie machines in the Clendon Family Inn at Clendon Park.

It has been applying for extensions to its licence to operate the machines since July last year because the venue at 459 Roscommon Rd "will be demolished and a new premise will be rebuilt in the same location".

Five of the applications were granted by the department "on the understanding that it was redeveloping in the same location".

But the department did not visit the redeveloped site and did not know the inn had relocated about 50 metres away to a new "venue".

Mr Newman was alerted to the lapse in April after the Manukau District Licensing Agency received a new liquor licence application for the same establishment because the physical address and the licensee had changed.

Manurewa MP George Hawkins lodged written questions to Internal Affairs Minister Rick Barker in May about the department’s lapse. In his answer, Mr Barker admitted the department had no knowledge of the problem until it received the questions on May 21.

On May 28 the trust applied for its sixth extension. On June 9, the department refused the sixth application with a caveat that "an onsite inspection was carried out prior to the refusal".

South Auckland Charitable Trust merged with Lion Foundation on June 30. It is not known if the group will appeal to the Gambling Commission over the issue. If they lose the on-licence, they will have to apply for a new one.

But the city council changed its gambling venue policy in December by introducing a continuous sinking lid on new venues in the city. Under the policy no licences for new gambling venues will be issued.

"The policy is to ensure that if any existing venue closes, it will not be replaced with a new licence somewhere else," Mr Newman says. "This may be the first big test of the council’s new gambling policy."