Queensland councils want the power to refuse developments to slow the escalating social cost of gaming machines, which soars to nearly $100 million per month while Queenslanders lost a record $2.3 billion to the pokies last year.
Noosa Mayor Tony Wellington hopes to win support to lobby the Department of State Development to have gaming machines classified as a land use, so councils could regulate the impact of poker machines.
He said they aim to see local government have a greater input into decision-making about where gaming machines are placed and how many machines, because they have to deal with some of the consequences of gaming machines.