Entries Tagged 'gambling' ↓

Despite the fact that there has been much research into the addictive and destructive nature of gambling, there has been a landmark victory for Melbourne pub the Pink Hill Hotel. They have been given the go ahead to build a children’s play area which will give children full view of the pokies and their parents in action.

Child-free pokies advocate Paul Bendat said “it’s a disgrace. It basically normalises gambling. Little kids say, ‘Look at all the grandmas and grandpas playing all the pokies in the room’.”

Anti-gambling groups are up in arms, warning that creating the playroom will only encourage and endorse problem gambling; allowing parents to utilise the children’s area as a child minding service while they play the pokies.

The Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation (VCGR) has granted the Beaconsfield pub permission to build a children’s playroom to “be fully enclosed with soundproof glass so that children are visible to parents from the gaming room or bistro”. In effect this is putting a crèche in the middle of an adult’s entertainment area.

The VCGR has since withdrawn permission for the playroom to be fitted out with “soundproof glass so that the children are visible to parents” however they are still allowing the child minding facility to remain in the middle of the gaming area. They seem to have completely missed the point; that children will still be exposed to gambling and it will, in effect, provide childcare facilities while parents play the pokies.

VCGR executive commissioner Peter Cohen said “I am not concerned about children seeing poker machines because I don’t think that’s as harmful as … children being unsupervised.”

“I’m a realist. People will gamble. If they are going to gamble, I would rather they have their children supervised.”

The local community have also come together to fight the VCAT on this issue to get the planning permission overturned. A hearing into the matter will be held in November.

Writer Helen Splarn. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha
Source: Sun Herald

4% of adult Australians play the pokies each week
$6 billion spent on pokies each year

The growing trend in ‘redemption games’ that are now filling children’s games arcades are setting them on the rocky road to gambling.

They are called ‘redemption games’ because young people play for tickets or prizes, including cameras and TVs. They use electronic claws to grasp at a pile of goodies, spin a wheel, or use a button to line up blocks and win.

Many of the games now even mimic poker machines and the increasing popularity of computer games and gaming consoles at home has further fuelled their popularity.

Many arcades are strategically placed in clubs near the pokies where their parents are playing. So while mum and dad are gambling away at the big poker machines (it accounts for almost two thirds of the $19 billion dollars Australians “spend” on gambling each year), the kids are learning how to gamble at the games arcade.

The Productivity Commission’s report into gambling which was published in June highlights the significant social cost of gambling, estimated to be at least $4.7 billion. More than 75% of Australians with gambling problems spend most of their money on poker machines. A survey conducted by the Victorian government found that 6,000 pokie playing Victorians admitted that their gambling had led them to do something against the law.

The Productivity Commission’s report confirmed the view that ”minors should not … be exposed to gambling areas within venues”.

The report also acknowledged that “there is strong evidence that gambling can have adverse health, emotional and financial impacts on many more people than those categorised as ‘problem gamblers’. As is the case in policies addressing harm from alcohol consumption, policy also needs to address these wider impacts”.

Independent Senator, Mr Nick Xenophon thinks these games should be reclassified as gaming machines. He said the federal government should bring in new laws; ”legislation needs to change because these machines are a training ground for pokies. It puts kids at risk.”

”While mum and dad are playing pokies inside, the kids are getting trained on redemption [arcade] games just a few metres away. The connection is insidious and it is totally cynical,” he said.

Activist and founder of PokieAct.org Paul Bendat said all children’s games should be banned from pokies venues. ”I stand for children not being in pokies venues at all because gambling is an adult form of harmful entertainment,” he said.

Mr Bendat believes that there is an Australia wide assault on our children, they are being lured into pokie pubs and exposed to gambling on the poker machines.

One person commented that “I would never let my children near pokies as I’ve seen what they can do families. After many years of seeing my husband’s nieces and nephews around pokies, they now also think nothing of sinking a few hundred (dollars) when we go out for lunch at a club”.

These sentiments are echoed by Charles Livingstone, an electronic gaming expert at Monash University, who feels that the arcade games both indoctrinate kids into gambling while making them feel it is a normal part of life, and  lure them with their parents into the pokie venues.

Dr Livingstone said Australia had ”one of the world’s most liberal gambling regulatory regimes”, which had led to a significant increase in the number of pubs and gaming venues offering children’s activities in recent years. A University of Adelaide study released last year surveyed more than 2,500 teenagers and found pathological gamblers were significantly more likely to play video and arcade games.

David Curry, a spokesman for Australian Leisure and Hospitality Group,  said “we operate family venues with a variety of entertainment opportunities for children included within that,”  he seemed unable to appreciate that games had the potential to teach children to gamble, or encourage them to gamble as they grew older.

It seems the government has a dilemma on its hands. The problem is that the Productivity Commission’s recommendations are trying to reduce the harm associated with gambling, while preserving its benefits.

This seems to be a contradiction of terms. How can something which has proven to be both addictive and harmful to the individual have any ‘benefits’? perhaps the government is referring to financial ‘benefits’ which the clubs no doubt enjoy or the revenue collected by the government which is certainly a benefit the government would not like to forego.

Writer Helen Splarn. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.

Source: pokieact – make pokie places kid free.  Productivity Commission’s report into gambling.

50% of pathological gamblers in Australia are women
20% more Australians gamble than Americans

A recent study published in the June issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry has found that genes do indeed play a part in addictive behaviours. This is at least so in the case of gambling.

Wendy Slutske, co-author of the study Genetic and Environmental Influences on Disordered Gambling in Men and Women conducted by the Queensland Institute of Medical Research said “previous research in men showed that gambling addiction can run in the family. This study extends those finding to include women.”

The objectives of the study was to investigate the role of genetic and environmental risk factors in the development of disordered gambling (DG) among women and to also determine the extent to which the genetic and environmental risk of DG among women differed quantitatively or qualitatively from the risk of DG among men. (Disordered gambling – DG – refers to the full continuum of gambling-related problems).

In order to do this the study took 2,899 pairs of both identical (identical genetic makeup) and fraternal (some shared genes) twins, aged between 32 and 43 years old and questioned them and their family and friends about their gambling habits. 57% of the participants were women.

It was found that nearly all of the 4,764 individuals questioned participated in gambling of some kind. 1% of the women met the criteria for problem gambling, compared to 3% of the men. The men were also twice as likely to be gambling addicts.

The study also found that “if your twin has a gambling problem, you’re more likely to develop one too if you’re an identical twin than if you’re a fraternal twin,” these results suggest that shared genes play a role.

The researchers concluded that, “shared environmental factors do not explain” variations in addictive behaviours.

The study established that “there was no evidence for shared environmental influences contributing to variation in disordered gambling (DG) liability. There was no evidence for quantitative or qualitative sex differences in the causes of variation in disordered gambling liability.”

The study concluded by saying that genes were as important in the etiology of disordered gambling in women as they were in men and that the susceptibility genes contributing to variation in liability for DG were likely to overlap considerably in men and women.

“Like alcoholism, problem gambling is a complex disorder,” Slutske said. “The answer will be in a collection of genes, maybe 10 or 100, we don’t know how many, but each gene will increase the risk slightly for developing those problems.”

Writer Helen Splarn. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.

Source: Archives of General Psychiatry, June 2010;67(6):624-630.  Authors: Wendy S. Slutske, MD; Madeline H. Meier (University of Missouri – Columbia) PhD; Gu Zhu, , MA; Nicholas G. Martin, PhD (Queensland Institute of Medical Research)