By Brendan Rees
Punters poured more than $11 million into pokie machines during the month of September – leading Australia’s gaming watchdog to say the situation was only “going to get worse.”
The latest figures from the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation revealed City of Casey ranked second worst council for gambling losses for the month of August, behind Brimbank.
The shock statistics showed $11.19 million was fed into 913 gaming machines at 13 venues in September.
According to the Alliance for Gambling Reform director and spokesman Tim Costello, pokies losses were causing more misery, family breakdown, crime and distress across the community.
“The situation is going to get worse with the government recently revealing it has sold 998 licences to operate pokies in Casey for 20 years from 2022, and increase from the current level of 913,” he said.
“Pokies losses in Casey jumped by almost $2 million to a record $35.76 million in the September quarter,” he said.
“When you consider that City of Casey only collected $203 million in rates revenue last year, it is extraordinary to think the same community could spend $135 million on addictive poker machines.
Mr Costello said the pokies industry was moving machines from the inner city to the growth areas and Casey is clearly “being targeted.”
“Local politicians should strongly resist given the increased harm this will cause in a community which already suffers above average rates of family violence,” he added.
In a statement last month, Casey council acting manager for city planning Kathryn Seirlis said council had been advocating for the State Government to extend a cap on the number of Electronic Gaming Machines for the whole municipality.
Cranbourne Information and Support Service executive officer Leanne Petrides said millions being poured into the gambling industry “which may very well be invested usefully elsewhere in our community”.
“Unfortunately, we know that it is very hard for people to talk about an addiction to poker machines as they are very embarrassed,” she said.
“If people are struggling with financial issues, it can sometimes be easy to seek a quick-fix with a win at the pokies, but we know that it is more often the venue that wins, and not the patron.”
