Late submission on the Waitaki District Council's review of its Gambling Venues Policy covering poker machines has led to it delaying any decisions.
The submission came during the council's public forum at its meeting yesterday, and raised issues that led to councillors deciding by 5-4 to defer any decisions.
It arose because when formal submissions closed, the New Zealand Racing Board had asked the council to amend its policy and allow TAB outlets to have poker machines.
The Oamaru Club opposed that. Yesterday, club representative Tony Brady said it was not aware the racing board was going to propose amending the policy and therefore had not made a submission during the formal process.
The council heard submissions on the policy last month. Mr Brady said money raised by poker machines in a TAB outlet would go to racing clubs, not community groups and organisations in the Waitaki district.
That would have a negative effect on those groups and organisations. The Oamaru Club wanted the gaming policy for the district to remain the same, Mr Brady said.
However, council strategy group manager Richard Mabon said the Oamaru Club's objection could not be treated as a formal submission under the consultative process and should be ignored without the racing board having a chance to respond.
That would place the consultative process at risk, but the difficulty was councillors had heard the club's comments, Mr Mabon said.
Cr Jim Hopkins said the Oamaru Club's submissions had raised unresolved issues, and moved any decisions should be delayed.
In the meantime, staff have been asked to get feedback from the racing board on how income from poker machines in a TAB outlet would be distributed.
Poker machines in the district were estimated to have a turnover of almost $1 million in the last three months of last year.
