Destroy the better mousetrap

If only the pokies wars would become an election issue.

The problems they cause in our communities are more than enough to warrant focussing on them in this, an election year. Forget the pisspoor legislation passed recently – it has done NOTHING to decrease the numbers of people affected by this problem. What good is legislation that MAY at some point in the future introduce measures to help the problem gambler?

Lara Gidding’s government has repeatedly renounced the opportunity to do something to help the embattled victims in favour of the “industry” as she puts it. The “Industry” of course is the Federal Group. We are receiving so little of the money back that this interstate company takes out through egm’s. There is no “benevolence” going on here. Do not be fooled into thinking that this company has Tasmania’s interests at heart. They would argue that the egm’s provide many jobs in this state. If true, i would argue that those jobs deserve to be lost because they come at the expense of a growing demographic within our communities that is “Ripe for the picking”.

The seven people affected for every problem gambler are started to be viewed as “civillian casualties” and dispensable.

To enable the freedoms of some to play these machines, we are casting aside the growing number of those whose senses have been tricked into addiction and cannot stop.

Aristocrat has up to ten psychologists working on the design of these machines at any given time. Why? To “build the better mousetrap” advocated by the founder of that company and maximise the profits.

The government give the gaming companies the information about the best areas in which to place their machines so as to maximise their profits. That demonstrates the lack of compassion the government has towards these seven plus victims for every addict the egm’s snare.

It makes me sick that the champions of the cause have spoken out for so long only to be ignored or treated as lunatic fringe – regardless of their political persuasion. People like Kim Booth who have been trying to raise awareness of this problem for well over a decade. How long does it take to hear a repeated voice in the wilderness? If we do not feed the ox when it is treading the mill it will tire and cease. The champions of this cause are becoming wearied mostly because the people haven’t backed them. Do we have to wait 15 or 20 years to hear the parents of this current generation to cry out and ask why did we not listen? No we don’t, those parents have the opportunity to cry out now and add weight to the whole thing but only if they are educated NOW.

Mention drug dealers, children and parents in the same sentence and the community gets angry enough to force the authorities to act for the children’s welfare.

Mention stopped busses, speed limits and darting children in the same sentence and the community gets angry enough to force the authorities to act and address the problem.

Mention online gambling or poker machines, children and hopelessness in the same sentence and so very little happens.

If we cannot get into the classrooms to tell the kids about these dangers we can tell them in our loungerooms instead, parents.

POKER MACHINES IMPOVERISH WOMEN
By Graziella D’Amico

In 1999, when Jeff Kennett was Premier of Victoria, I was asked to write an article on Poker Machines for a Victorian Italo-Australian magazine with a circulation of about 100. I never sent it and I found it on a floppy disk, the things we used before flash drives.

Andrew Wilkie, who does excellent work in Denison, has now joined Senator Xenophon, and I salute both good parliamentarians. I’m not sure how accurate the opening piece now is about child support, but it was an issue at the time. The article is exactly as I wrote it, and its basic message about poker machines is timeless.

A friend of mine who scrutineered for a major political party at last year’s federal election (that is, 1998) told me about an interesting comment written on a ballot paper by a voter (identity and sex unknown, but in all likelihood a male). It read “ABOLISH CHILD SUPPORT AND FAMILY COURT. LESBIAN WOMEN IMPOVERISH MEN.”

An exaggeration? Possibly. Politically incorrect? Certainly in its reference to gay females. A comment on impoverishment? Maybe in the case of one individual, and possibly others. A comment about women? Some females do pay child support, but child support is not an issue of concern to most women. There may be votes in it, but the preferred candidate of the voter above, a supporter of child support reform, lost his deposit. There is another form of impoverishment that largely affects women. Certainly in Victoria, and also to a greater or lesser extent in other states. It is both insidious and contagious. It almost certainly cannot be eradicated.

It is poker machines. In South Australia Nick Xenophon, known as “Mr No Pokies,” was elected to that State’s Upper House of Parliament on this issue alone. He is unlikely to be successful. Both the Coalition and the ALP will oppose his proposal for pokies abolition.

Poker machines were originally legalised in New South Wales in the 1950’s, and were generally located only in licensed clubs. Originally they were known as “one armed bandits,” as the player cranked a handle with one arm after inserting money in the machine. The handle has been replaced by an electronic button, and the player is relieved of great sums of money in a very short time. Governments like them, for they raise a lot of revenue. In Victoria the Cain government opposed them, but the Kirner government, alarmed at Victoria’s financial position after the failure of the State Bank and its finance subsidiary, Tricontinental, looked for new sources of revenue. Gambling was that source, and both pokies and the Casino are now seemingly irrevocable features of our State.

Pokies are located in almost all parts of Victoria. Not only are they in licenced clubs, but anyone over 18 years of age can walk into many Victorian hotels and freely play them. Women are particulary addicted. It is generally women from lower socio-economic backgrounds who are most likely to be players. The major pokies venues are in the poorest areas. Broadmeadows has about 2000 machines, whereas Balwyn has only 180. The easy accessibility means that many women will lose Centrelink benefits and pensions to the machines.

A good example of a poker machine venue in my local area is Cramers Hotel in working class Preston. The gaming room is open 24 hours a day. There are five cent and ten cent, as well as dollar machines. In the early evening the room is almost always full. About seven out of ten of the players are women. No one talks. It is impossible to enter up a conversation. The women press buttons. When a jackpot is won the machines light up. Even for minor payouts music is played and the machines make a noise. After midnight there are still addicts playing. I counted fourteen at one o’clock on a Tuesday morning. Most cannot win. Some will win the odd jackpot, but the majority of players will lose. It is almost impossible for any regular player to win over an extended period.

Why do they play when the odds are against them? They venues are not even pleasant. If you are a smoker you can gamble and still enjoy your cigarette. Gaming rooms are smoke filled rooms. They are not smoke free like most Victorian offices. Perhaps this is an attraction to some women. Perhaps gambling is a sex substitute. Perhaps women are seeking companionship from an anonymous machine, and perhaps the machine is preferable to a bullying, arrogant and possibly violent partner. Perhaps its a social thing. They can gamble with like minded women who’ve run out of things to talk about. Television soaps like “Days of Our Lives” and “The Bold and the Beautiful” are likely topics of conversation in the “ladies.” So too, perhaps, is the rearrangement of the aisles in the local Safeway Supermarket. Pokies women lead boring lives. But why fritter away all their money?

Gambling affects all social classes. It is not only the uneducated who gamble, but one wonders at the level of intelligence of some of the creme de la creme of our society.

Judges and leading surgeons race thoroughbreds, and are regularly seen in the Committee Room at Flemington racecourse. High rollers with great wealth gamble in the Mahogany Room at Crown Casino, and these include a Labor Parliamentarian from a western suburbs electorate. He would be of course be atypical. Where does he get the money from that he must lose? Perhaps he wins. Middle class gamblers, and especially Asians, regularly patronise Crown Casino. Lower middle class gamblers patronise harness racing. Greyhound racing is a sport largely of the working classes. And the largely male gamblers who congregate at agencies of the TAB are also in general from low socio-economic backgrounds.

Our state is full of gambling, and it is sad. What can we do? We are unlikely to eradicate it by legislation. Nor will we ever stop people from gambling whether we ban it or not. We should make a start by restricting access. Pokies venues should be restricted. They should not be allowed to open for 24 hours a day. And they should be limited to five cent machines, with a maximum bet on five lines on any one machine. That way it would take longer for addicts to lose their money. Gambling education should be promoted, and problem gamblers should receive counselling at government expense.

How can we expect our visionless politicians to handle gambling related problems? No encouraging signs exist. The American practice of food stamps, welfare vouchers that can be exchanged only for food and not for cash money, is a last resort that bureaucratic policy proposals suggest will eventually replace handouts and pensions to people who are unable to help themselves cure a gambling addiction.

Our government policymakers, if they didn’t want legalised gambling for the money, would have to be perverse followers of Dale Carnegie, the 1930’s American management guru. Carnegie wrote long ago that if you want to be happy you should never gamble. Ever. And if you had an enemy you despised the worst form of punishment that you could bestow on him (or her) would be to encourage him (or her) to “bet on the ponies.” In 1999 Melbourne that would now mean to play the pokies.