Disable horizontal gestures in VLC on OS X

This answer concerns VLC 2.0.7, but may work for previous versions.

In the menu bar select VLC -> Preferences

Then press Show All

Navigate to Interface -> Hotkey Settings -> Hotkeys

And change MouseWheel up-down axis Control to Ignore

Then restart VLC (VLC-> Quit)

This option is not well named as it only specifies the up-down axis. However, setting it to ignore disables both the up-down and left-right axis.