POKER machines are the addiction of choice for the vast majority of problem gamblers in Albury- Wodonga, an expert says.
Financial counsellor at Gateway Community Health Karin Stahl said about 80 per cent of the problem gamblers she counsels are getting into debt through pokie use.
Ms Stahl, along with other local counsellors and national gambling expert Alun Jackson, supports the introduction of mandatory pre-commitment technology for pokies.
Mandatory pre-commitment would force punters to put a limit on how much they want to spend before they start playing the pokies.
Its proponents say it should stop pokie addicts losing much more money than they intended or could afford.
Ms Stahl said, with proper implementation, pre-commitment technology would compel gamblers to set a limit on how much they wanted to spend before they started gambling, when they were still thinking logically.
“It would work for problem gamblers because with pre-commitment they make the decision when they’re not in the zone, when they’re rational,” Ms Stahl said.
She said slowing the pace of machines would also make it harder for problem gamblers to lose large amounts of money quickly.
Professor Jackson, Director of the Problem Gambling Research and Treatment Centre, said while a smaller proportion of the Australian population was having a punt than previous years, more were “binge-gambling”.
& ldquo;Like binge-drinking it just represents people being out of control,” Professor Jackson said.
From losing a home to losing a family, the potentially devastating results of gambling addictions are well reported.
Experts say a third of problem gamblers have attempted suicide, and they are more likely to suffer depression, abuse drugs, be socially isolated or be victims or perpetrators of domestic violence.
It is an addiction that also has a high rate of relapse and affects people of all ages, ethnicity and socioeconomic standing.
Professor Jackson said, so far, there had been very few attempts to make restrictions on gambling in Australia — and this needed to change.
“We need stronger mechanisms for those that can’t control their behaviour,” he said.
Editorial — page 12
Email a friend