Poker machine addiction continues to plague the North East, with Wodonga punters losing more than $7.6 million this financial year, up from $7.4 million in 2014-15.
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The Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation’s expenditure report revealed Elgin’s hotel raked in the most cash from pokies, receiving more than $4.9 million.
Birallee Tavern took more than $1.5 million, while the Blazing Stump Hotel scored over $1.1 million from its pokies.
The figures do not take into account Wodonga residents who gamble in Albury.
Despite large losses, the numbers did represent an overall decline from the $8.24 million lost in Wodonga on pokies in 2010-11.
But Albury-based St David Care’s problem gambling counsellor Kaily Goodsell said overall gambling rates were increasing with the rise of online sports gambling.
“There’s a whole lot of new ways to gamble – everybody has a gambling device in their hands these days,” she said. “That makes the people who are at risk even more at risk, because it’s so accessible, 24 hours a day.”
Ms Goodsell said poker machine addiction was unique in its nature.
“My clients who have an electronic gaming machine addiction refer to it as zoning out, where they go and all their problems disappear” she said.
“That’s an indicator there’s a precipitating problem. They find solace in a gaming machine because they’re not thinking about anything so they don’t have to face the problem.”
In Wangaratta, punters lost more than $8.2 million on pokies this financial year, up from $8.1 million in 2014-15.
The Pinsent Hotel took in over $3.6 million from its machines.
Alpine and Towong shires registered a decline in pokies revenue, receiving only $2.5 million in 2015-16 compared to $3.1 million in 2014-15.
But this was largely due to the closure of the Mount Beauty Country Club, which went into administration in July 2015.
Across Victoria, poker machine losses were greater in disadvantaged, poorer communities.
My clients who have an electronic gaming machine addiction refer to it as ‘zoning out’, where they go and all their problems disappear
- Problem gambling counsellor Kaily Goodsell