Concerns grow that new west Melbourne housing will sit too close to poker machines

A planned 500-home development in Melbourne's west has revived a local fight over poker machines. The homes will be built on hectares of land in Deer Park that sat empty for years after serving as an explosives depot. Residents welcome the housing but say the proposal offers no alternative community hub and sits beside a pub with gambling machines.

"It's a potential social housing disaster," local resident Graeme Blore said. His concern is the damage caused by poker machines in Brimbank, which has one of the highest gambling-loss rates among Melbourne local government areas. Punters lost $185 million across Brimbank last financial year, more than in any other local government area in Victoria.

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It's a potential social housing disaster

The Deer Park Hotel, next to the development, recorded $19.5 million in gambling losses. The Deer Park Club, less than a kilometre away, recorded another $17 million. Blore said the combined figure represented more than $100,000 every day of the year. After campaigning against the plans for years, he joined a political party for the first time in his 70-year-old life, the new West Party.

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We are not about outlawing altogether

The party wants to tighten poker-machine rules if it gains influence at November's state election. It does not propose an outright ban, candidate Paul Hopper said, but wants a fairer system and changes to addictive features. Its proposals include removing alarms that make losses sound like wins and changing how quickly machines can spin.

The issue is complicated by the state's reliance on gambling taxes. Victoria's Treasury collects $1.5 billion in poker-machine taxes each year, while the social impact of problem gambling was estimated at $14 billion. Labor announced in 2023 that it would require players to set a limit on how much they were willing to lose and use a card to play. Laws enabling the scheme have passed and a trial has taken place, but the broader rollout was delayed under Premier Jacinta Allan ahead of November's election. Critics called the trial too weak, and its results remain unpublished. The Coalition has also questioned whether carded play would work.

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We just see a much fairer and more equitable system for the people of Victoria, and we think these addictive features need to be dealt with and minimised