Latest figures furnished by the Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation (VCGR) showed that state gamblers burned a whopping $2.6 billion into poker machines amidst the financial pressures brought by the continually hiking cash rates and increasing living expenses.

However, the VCGR clarified that the current numbers were 4.1 percent lower than the $2.7 billion spending posted in the prior financial year, which is also the steepest slip since the smoking bans were imposed in 2002/03.

The gambling regulation body said that spending by Victorian adult dipped by 5.8 percent to $611 in the same period as it noted that the number of gambling venues and machines in Victoria retreated to their lowest levels since the mid-1990s, adding that only 514 venues with 26,682 poker machines can be found in the state.

The VCGR figures also showed that gamblers spent most on pokies in the Brimbank council area of Melbourne western suburbs, where a total of $134 million was played on in the 2009/10 financial year while an identical $120 million was spent in Monash and Casey, both located in the eastern suburbs.

In turn, the gambling watchdog said that Werribee Plaza appeared to be as the most lucrative gaming venue as players there splurged a total of $19.19 million in the same period while the Bundoora Tavern and Epping Plaza Hotel came closely behind by grossing a twin average of $18 million each.

The state's opposition party said that the Victorian government is set to amass up to $1 billion in gaming revenues this financial year as it added that in FY2008/09 alone, an estimated $1.6 billion in taxes were collected by the state treasury in all gambling activities in the region.

In this light, opposition gaming spokesman Michael O'Brien urged the state government to act further in ensuring that the community is ably protected from the spillover effects of gambling as he called attention on a recent government-sponsored research that underscored the seeming parallel affinity of poker machines playing and the spiking level of crime within the surrounding areas.

Mr O'Brien scored the apparent willingness of Premier John Brumby to collect billions in gaming machine taxes while the government is letting its guards down to seriously deal with the state's spiralling gambling issue.