POKIE players in the Southern Grampians Shire have spent the most money ever in a financial year since stats recorded shires individually.

The Shire saw a whopping $6,989,210.57 spent in the 2022/23 financial year on pokies, which is $2,332,133 more than the 2019/20 financial year when the stats were last taken.

That amounts to $19,148.5 lost on the slot machines per day, $134,407.8 per week and $582,434.1 per month.

Patrons at the Grand Central Hotel spent $4,450,436.33 on the 40 licensed electronic gambling machines (EGM) whereas those at Alexandra House Sports Club spent $2,538,774.33 on the 35 EGM’s.

The previous record in the 2011/2012 financial year was when the total amount spent on pokies in the Southern Grampians Shire was $6,942,509.

There is a total of 75 EGMs in the Southern Grampians - all located in Hamilton - with 40 at the Grand Central Hotel and 35 at Alexandra House Sports Club.

On average there was $111,260.90 spent on each EGM at the Grand Central Hotel and $72,536.40 at Alexandra House in the past financial year.

In July, the State Government introduced new reforms to help protect Victorians from gambling harm, proclaiming it would make Victoria’s gambling harm protection the best in the nation.

This includes load-up limits (how much money an individual can put into an EGM at a time) being reduced from $1000 down to $100, helping people make decisions about their spending and reduce the amount of money that can be potentially lost.

The government will also make it mandatory for all new EGMs to spin at a rate of three seconds per game, slowing the pace of the game down and limiting the amount that can be lost.

By mid-2024, mandatory closure periods will be enforced for all gaming machine areas in a venue, except the casino, between 4am and 10am.

This will address evidence showing some venues are implementing staggered opening hours to allow users to move between venues in one area to continue gambling.