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Department of Internal Affairs,
The Department has decided to shelve plans for the New Zealand Gambling Conference 2009. This decision was not taken lightly.
One of the reasons related to the cost of the conference. While the Department expected to recover the costs through registrations we also needed to consider the cost impact on prospective participants. It was expected that many of the participants would be from the gambling / philanthropic area, either distributors or recipients of charitable funding.
It is unreasonable to expect such people or organisations to pay to attend such a two-day conference in the current economic climate. The worldwide economic downturn has seen trust funds suffer meaning there is less money for distribution to community purposes. Trusts' costs also affect the amount of money available for distribution and the law requires gaming machine societies to minimise costs and maximise return to the community.
The Department decided in early 2008 to hold the conference. The aim was to gauge progress towards getting the best outcomes from gambling five years after the Gambling Act 2003 came into force. With the recent change of Government, the Department's future work programme relating to gambling is still being determined and a broadly-based conference is not appropriate at present.
The Department will agree on a work programme with the Minister and give further consideration to engaging with the various groups that have an interest in the gambling sector. Keith Manch would like to personally thank all those who agreed to participate in this conference and hopes that they will be willing to contribute at any future forums the Department holds.
The wiki will remain "open" allowing those with an interest in gambling in New Zealand an opportunity to share information about issues related to the costs and benefits of gambling, the way the community is engaged with gambling issues, and how integrity, harm and crime issues related to gambling are addressed.
Information that you put on this wiki will be used to help the Department to assess how well the gambling objectives are being met generally. Access the wiki here: http://gamblingconference2009.dia.govt.nz/