Page 4837 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 1 November 2017
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The Greens are pleased to be working with the government to reduce the number of poker machines in the territory, improve harm minimisation and reduce the impact of gambling harm in our community. The public conversation we have had over recent months, led by people with lived experience of gambling harm, has helped our community come a long way in understanding just how addictive and destructive poker machines can be. As a result, most of us are no longer willing to dismiss this as a minor issue that should be left up to each individual to deal with.
In 2014-15 people in the ACT spent nearly $168 million on the pokies. Almost 20 per cent of ACT adults played the pokies at least once in that period, with losses totalling $37½ million. Of these losses, 63 per cent came from people with at least some problem gambling symptoms. Twenty-eight per cent of losses came from people at moderate risk or people identified as problem gamblers. That means that $10.59 million was lost by people with some level of gambling addiction.
Anyone can develop a gambling problem. It does not depend on age, gender, income, education or ethnic background. For people experiencing mental or physical health problems, stress, social isolation, or loss and grief, the risk of problem gambling developing is greater. The evidence shows that poker machines are addictive and manipulative and are designed that way so that people lose money. The damage they are inflicting upon families and our community is real.
I am conscious that we often debate issues in this place where we talk about how tough it is for people and about cost of living issues and some of the financial pressures that people are under. But we are talking here about figures of $37½ million lost on the pokies and more than $10½ million of that coming from people with some level of gambling addiction. I find it discordant that those issues are not connected by some people in the way they discuss issues in this place.
The Greens are committed to responding to the issue of the way poker machines are designed and their very purpose of ensuring that people lose money. We have secured a number of commitments which will reduce gambling harm across the territory, and I have touched on that. They include a decrease in the number of poker machines in the ACT, down to 4,000 this term and a 20 per cent reduction by 2020. The fact is that Canberra has too many poker machines. With one of the highest rates of pokies per capita across all states and territories, this is not an issue we can continue to ignore.
We are also looking at other ways that we can reduce gambling harm in the territory. As I mentioned earlier, we have already increased the problem gambling assistance fund by $250,000 for additional research on gambling harm and to support local groups to address problem gambling right here in our community. I welcome the government’s commitment to undertake a review of the community contribution scheme in the coming months. The Greens would like to see the contribution rate increase to a minimum of 10 per cent and a proportion directed into a centralised community fund to be distributed by an independent board.
The figures the minister just gave about the spend on sport and how $6.6 million goes towards supporting community sport and recreation and yet only $350,000 goes to
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