
The cost of living is a big problem for gamblers who play to pay bills and provide for children, according to a Salvation Army Counsellor.
Mr Ravi Iyer, a counsellor for both the Salvation Army and the Victorian Gambling Foundation, says low-income communities are among most affected by gambling addiction.
“The motivations to gamble are for psychological reasons: escape from stress…for monetary reasons. The cost of living…still places a massive burden on families to make a home, pay bills on time, provide for children…”
Social and sporting clubs gain an estimated 60 percent of their revenue from gaming machines. Consumers aged 41–54 account for over a third of that revenue- more than any other age bracket in Australia. Research shows low socioeconomic areas to spend more of their income on gambling than middle-income earners.
Iyer says, “Slipping behind on payments is a big reason why people often turn to the pokies in the mistaken belief that they can turn things around, but ultimately to escape the pressures these situations generate.”
Stephanie Chivers, a habit and addiction specialist, says the issue is bigger than just making ends meet. She says pokies machines are targeted at low-income earners with a desire to win and more to lose. Her experiences show people both become gambling addicts while above and below the poverty line.
“It’s classic escapism, whether people realize it or not… then habit sets in and addiction.”
She says jobs, relationships, feeling stuck and money troubles make people replace their pressures with vices like gambling.
“…they need to replace it with something else as all their buttons have been pressed, so life is going to feel boring, empty.”
Stephanie is the creator of ichange21: an online and confidential self-help program for gambling, alcohol, sugar, junk food and drug addiction. She says more regulations are needed and that poker machines are the most addictive form of gambling.
She has dealt with clients whose families have broken down due to debt, sometimes resulting in homelessness and other addictions.
People fall below the poverty line because “It’s the way it’s designed. These machines are set up in a way to make the user think they are winning, when actually they are not. That’s what keeps them in the game and why these machines are so popular.”
“The flashing lights, the design, the fact that you can get in the zone and keep going with no breaks. Lots of audio-visual triggers. If I play 10 games, I may win seven. I feel like I am winning the way the machine flashes at me, helps me buy into this.”
“It is an addiction: the machine, predictability, the zone, escapism and the belief that they can win.”
“If you are in the business of making money from gambling, you will design your product and marketing around people who have more desire to win and also have more to lose.”
EGM manufacturer Aristocrat Entertainment and Melbourne’s Crown Casino are being sued over ‘deceptive’ poker machines, Maurice Blackburn and the Alliance for Gambling reform leading the prosecution.
Director of strategy for the Alliance, Rohan Wenn, wants to “…stop the deliberate and misleading harm that they’re (poker machines) design to cause. We’ve got a lot of councils on board and the law on our side.”
Iyer agrees, saying, “There is a false perception amongst problematic gamblers that winning is certainly possible, sometimes inevitable if they play the same machine… Australia has one of the lowest payout rates of any country with EGMs.”
Aristocrat Entertainment Limited owns a 51.3% market share in the gaming and vending machines manufacturing industry, industry revenue is expected to grow in the coming years. They own over 50 percent of Australia’s gambling industry.
The company said in a statement in September, “Aristocrat emphatically rejects any suggestion that its games are designed to encourage problem gambling, or in any way fail to comply with all relevant regulations and laws.”
Crown responded to the lawsuit, saying it will, “vigorously defend” any claims of deception made against it and is currently owned by billionaire magnate James Packer. Aristocrat
Entertainment Ltd. is the largest manufacturer of poker machines in Australia and second largest in the world. They have offices in over 30 locations including the U.S, UK, South Africa, New Zealand, Mexico and Macau.
Independent senator Nick Xenophon is joining with two other federal politicians to protect whistleblowers who share industry secrets on poker machines and payoffs within parliament. The campaign starts Tuesday, November 2nd and more information can be found at http://www.nickxenophon.com.au/
For gambling help, please visit The Salvation Army at www.salvos.org.au/need-help/problem-gambling/ or Stephanie Chivers of ichange21 at www.ichange21.com/
For more information on how to support gambling reform, please visit http://www.pokiesplayyou.org.au/
