Each municipality had a small increase compared to the 2009/10 year, with the most spent in Darebin at $89 million, ahead of Moreland at $69.4 million, Melbourne at $67.13 million and Yarra at $31.85 million.

The inner-city regions were well down on the state's list of pokies expenditure. Brimbank in Melbourne's west topped the list at $139 million with Casey in the east second at $124 million.

Statewide, more than $2.65 billion was spent on pokies – up 2.1 per cent on 2009/10.

The number of poker machines remained the same in Moreland, Yarra and Darebin, despite the increase in spending.

In Melbourne, the number of poker machines was reduced from 779 to 743.

Darebin Council has a differential rate that applies to gaming venues and a responsible gaming strategy to try to curb spending on pokies.

Crown Casino statistics are counted separately.

Councillor Gaetano Greco called on the state government to tighten the cap on the number of pokies allowed in Darebin.

"We've unturned every stone we could to try to minimise problem gambling but as we've found our hands are tied because the cap is set by the state government and we can't control how many machines come into our city," he said.

Moreland Council has also set a differential rate for gaming venues.

Monash University gambling expert Charles Livingstone said he was skeptical about special rates for gaming venues.

Dr Livingstone said the state governments had a dependency on gambling revenues. He expressed fears that councils could become "the biggest gambling addicts of all" if they started to rely on revenue from gaming venues.