Wyndham’s pokies raked in more than $97.76 million in the 2016-17 financial year, the eighth-highest in Victoria’s municipalities.
Brimbank topped the state with more than $134.14 million in gaming revenue for the same time.
In the previous financial year, Brimbank’s electronic gaming machines (EGMs) took in $143.04 million while Wyndham’s pokies took in more than $97.38 million.
Wyndham is home to 893 individual gaming machines and 13 pokies venues, Brimbank has 948 gaming machines across 15 venues.
Chairman of Wyndham council’s gambling reference group, Cr Josh Gilligan, said the council was keen to “represent our community’s interests” in regard to the number and placement of EGMs in the municipality.
“Council is very concerned that so much is being spent on electronic gaming machines in Wyndham,” Cr Gilligan said.
He said that despite total pokies expenditure dropping across Victoria in 2016-17, Wyndham’s net player losses increased, underscoring the importance of continuing to address the harm pokies cause.
Cr Gilligan said the council was developing an updated strategy “to reduce the harm caused by EGMs and other forms of gambling in the community”.
He said the council would also launch a survey in coming weeks in an effort to find out resident attitudes towards pokies and online gambling.
“We will be calling on all residents, even if they don’t gamble, to take part in the survey,” he said.
He said the survey would enable the council to better understand what impact EGMs and online gambling were having in the community.
He encouraged anyone dealing with a gambling problem to visit responsiblegambling.vic.gov.au/getting-help; or to contact Gambler’s Help on 1800 858 858 or the Gambler’s Help Youthline on 1800 262 376.
