A new report by the Centre of Western Sydney has revealed that gambling has turned into a “silent epidemic” for local residents.
Tom Nance, manager of the Centre, cited some of the data, according to which 63% of Sydney’s gambling losses through electronic gaming machines have been registered in the western part of the city. In comparison, only 52% of Sydney’s population is concentrated there. He explained that an alarmingly high percentage of gambling losses is sustained in a small number of locations, such as Cumberland, Canterbury-Bankstown, and Fairfield Local Government Areas, where there are over 11,200 pokies available.
According to the results of the survey, people in the three aforementioned Local Government Areas generated record poker machine losses over the first half of 2022 – a third of Greater Sydney’s losses worth AU$2.5 billion. The manager of the Centre of Western Sydney, however, said that the fact local people were more likely to face gambling-related harm was not surprising at all, considering the large number of casinos available in the region.
However, the negative consequences of compulsive gambling have become so obvious that the implementation of gambling reform has become a major issue ahead of the upcoming state elections in the state of New South Wales (NSW).
Considering the fact that the state Government receives tax revenue worth billions of AU dollars from local pubs and clubs on an annual basis, the much-needed change would not probably come easy. The commercial representative of the sector – ClubsNSW – has been fiercely campaigning against the proposed reforms.
Controversial Pokies Constitute One of the Most Dangerous Forms of Gambling, Campaigners Claim
While local politicians are considering and debating their next move, community groups in Western Sydney are trying to tackle gambling addiction rates.
As shared by an official representative of Gamblers Anonymous, most people tend to be fully broken by the time when they arrive at centres helping compulsive gamblers, with many of them having lost businesses, families, houses, jobs, life savings, etc. According to campaigners, change is needed because the current measures that have been put in place are obviously not good enough to ensure the necessary protection against gambling-related harm.
According to recent research, Fairfield saw the largest six-month losses to poker machines in the area of Greater Sydney – more than AU$214 million, followed by Canterbury-Bankston, with AU$190 million, and Cumberland, with losses amounting to more than AU$122 million. Inner West was the location that saw the smallest losses on local club pokies over the first six months of the previous year, until May 31st, 2022.
When it comes to local gamblers’ losses on poker machines in Greater Sydney hotels over the first six months of 2022, Sydney was first, with registered losses of more than AU$151 million. Canterbury-Bankston was second, with losses exceeding AU$138 million, and Fairfield was third, with AU$101 million in losses registered for the period between December 31st, 2021 and May 31st, 2022. Poker machines in Campbelltown and Ryde hotels saw the smallest losses, worth more than AU$35 million at each of the two locations.
Nathan Peterson, who runs some of the Gamblers Anonymous meetings, has revealed that only between 5% and 8% of the people that come to the Centre never return to their detrimental gambling habits, and this is a very small number indeed. And the fact there is a large number of poker machines available in the region does not make things easier.
Anti-pokie campaigners have noted that Covid-19-related lockdowns really made a difference for some people because pubs and clubs were forced to shut their businesses and avid gamblers had to stay away from their favourite pastime for longer periods of time. Unfortunately, this did not last long, because once the local Government relaxed the measures associated with the coronavirus pandemic, people were eager to spend all the money they had managed to store throughout the closures straight back into the controversial pokies.
- Author
Daniel Williams
