Academic says gamblers can’t afford to drink

BY ALEX MCDONALD

Sydney University’s Chair in Psychology Professor Alex Blaszczynski wants alcohol banned in the state’s gaming venues.

Professor Blaszczynski said harm minimisation programs are being undermined by governments that are “stuck in a conflict of interest” over problem gambling and poker machine revenue.

“My view is that we should have the separation of alcohol and more, destination type gambling venues,” Professor Blaszczynski said. “We have an industry that promotes gaming, the government gets its cut and the community participates.”

Over the past five years the states and territories have spent more than $200 million on counselling and harm minimisation. This year, the Iemma Government set aside $10.2 million to fund 48 counselling services.

Yet Professor Blaszczynski is not alone in believing this is not enough to stem the nation’s pokie habit.

Cumberland Hospital psychiatrist Dr Clive Allcock has been treating problem gamblers for the past 30 years. He has watched the number of poker machines skyrocket to the point where, for every dollar spent at the racetrack, $5 is spent on the pokies.

“We all acknowledge that you’ll never get rid of [problem gambling],” Dr Allcock said.

“I was recently talking to a gambler who won eight or nine thousand dollars in one session but fed it all back [into a machine].”

The problem is so acute that Sydney psychologist Siobhan McLean from the St Vincent’s Gambling Treatment centre compared poker machines to cars without seatbelts. “Poker machines contain highly sophisticated programming and there is very little legislation to reduce their pull,” she said.

Like drivers without seatbelts, many gamblers fail to see the dangers. Resident psychologist at the University of Sydney’s gambling clinic, Christopher Hunt, said: “Problem gamblers see it as an investment. The difference between someone who gambles occasionally and someone who has a problem is that they believe the machine has got to pay out eventually.”

At least a third of the money swallowed by poker machines comes from people who can’t control how much they spend. Most academics and clinicians agree that those with gambling problems will either overestimate their chance of winning, or fail to understand the probabilities involved.

Professor Blaszczynsk said gamblers who overindulge tend to, ‘remember the past wins and dismiss the losses, and attribute any outcome to their own skills.’

Christopher Hunt said a cull of the state’s 100,000 poker machines was overdue.

‘The number of poker machines in the state will always lead to a higher rate of problem gambling,’ he said.

A spokeswoman for the Minister for Gaming and Racing said the NSW Government has no intention of banning alcohol in gaming venues.

She added that taxes on gambling fell from 5 per cent in 1995 to 3.32 per cent this year. ‘We are also moving to ban credit card cash withdrawals from ATMs and EFTPOS in gaming venues,’ she said