The number of pokies is down. But we're pumping more money than ever into the remaining pub and club machines.

In the three months to September Tauranga gamblers fed $8,314,365.18 into the pokies. That's 3.80 percent of the national total.

And it's $684,308 more than they punted for the same period last year.

Across the country pokies sucked up $218.9 million in the September quarter according to latest figures released from the Department of Internal Affairs, more than $5 million dollars up on the same period last year .

For the year to September 30 pokie expenditure totalled $848.9 million – $25.1 million or 3 per cent more than $823.8 million for the 12 months ended 30 September 2015.

This has to be considered against the reduced number of licence holders, gambling venues and gaming machines. Over the year licence holders fell 8 per cent from 309 to 284, venues fell 3 per cent from 1255 to 1214, and gaming machines dropped 1 per cent from 16,440 to 16,221.