Jacob Saulwick, The Sydney Morning Herald
IF Julia Gillard backs away from her timetable to introduce meaningful changes to poker machines, it will disgust the members of the Gambling Impact Society of NSW.
The society, whose members have almost all been serious poker machine gamblers or had family who were, met yesterday for one of their regular meetings at the Nowra Neighbourhood Centre.
“This was a really good opportunity for change; it was very exciting,” society chairwoman Kate Roberts said, herself a gambling counsellor who has a family member who had been a pokie addict.
“It’ll be disgusting [if Gillard drops it],” Debbie said.
She is a nurse whose former defence force husband repeatedly stole from their young family to fund his gambling habit.
The society’s meeting had been called to organise one of its advocacy events, a seminar during Responsible Gambling Awareness Week in May.
But yesterday, having invited the Herald, members wanted to talk about the destruction high-intensity poker machines could wreak and why something needed to be done.
One young member, who did not want to be named or photographed, was working in a club when her habit got the better of her.
Her fiance had already taken control of their finances, so she stole tens of thousands of dollars from the till, got caught, and is now serving an 18-month suspended sentence.
She supports a strong pre-commitment system and lower betting limits: “Do I believe I was born a compulsive gambler? Certainly not. I definitely would have used it,” she said of a pre-commitment system.
Continue reading this article here: Gillard pokies backflip angers those trying to heal the hurt.
The apparent backflip is very disappointing.
It is hard to imagine a more obvious target for reform than poker machines. Sure it will mean that some clubs have to rationalise their activities. There is no doubt that will hurt some people.
But look at it this way. Imagine pokies didn’t exist, and you had the great idea to introduce them. You explained that people could lose up to $1500 per hour, and that the machines were highly addictive. But, you said, it would give you cheap meals and beer. Who wouldn’t go for that?