A spokesman of the Salvation Army has revealed that an amount exceeding AU$55.7 million has been lost on the poker machines available in Ballarat over the 2017/2018 fiscal year, which eventually left many families extremely poor.
Craig Wood, a Salvation Army Captain, shared that there were families which had lost literally everything to poker machines in the city. Mr. Wood further added that it was high time for some measures to be taken in order to reduce the negative impact that those machines had on vulnerable people, and especially children. He highlighted the number of families and children affected by the pokies’ harm and had called for action to tackle gambling-related harm.
According to statistics which have recently been released by the local gambling regulator – the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation – local players lost over AU$55.7 million at the gambling venues in Ballarat during the last financial year. The figure represents a growth of approximately AU$1.2 million from the amount lost on pokies in the 2016/2017 financial year. Currently, there are 15 gambling venues on the territory of the Ballarat city.
As revealed by The Ballarat Courier, a spokesman of the Ballarat Interagency Taskforce on Gambling revealed that the above-mentioned figure represented the worst losses generated on the city’s poker machines in six years.
Ballarat Interagency Taskforce Calls for Action on Pokies
The Taskforce, which currently includes The Salvation Army, Ballarat Community Health, Ballarat Council, the Central Highlands Primary Care Partnership, Federation University and the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), has called for the two key political formations in the state of Victoria to take action and roll out effective measures to deal with the problem. The Taskforce demanded that state politicians must adopt the guidelines offered by the Productivity Commission back in 2010.
Now, the Ballarat Interagency Taskforce on Gambling is seeking some actions to see a reduction of the maximum bets allowed at local pokies reduced from AU$5 to AU$1. It also calls for some hour restrictions to be brought to hotels offering poker machines. In addition, they want to see the maximum cash withdrawals from ATM devices permitted in gambling venues offering poker machines to be slashed by more than half, from AU$500 to AU$200 a day, as well as a reduction in the number of pokies in the state of Victoria.
As previously reported by Casino Guardian, the Victorian Gambling Regulator has recently revealed record losses on local poker machines over the last fiscal year. According to information provided by the Commission, residents of the state of Victoria lost approximately AU$2.7 billion on pokies in the 2017/2018 year, with the losses reaching a record high in a decade.
With a little over 26,380 poker machines available across the state of Victoria, local citizens have generated the largest annual loss on pokies since the 2008/2009 financial year. What is more, a dangerous trend that sees the players in some of the poorest communities in the state generating the largest losses on poker machines has also been revealed. At the time when the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation (VCGLR) revealed the figures, Tim Costello, the head of the Alliance for Gambling Reform, once again blamed the State Government for the losses and called them to take some action in order to tackle the spreading problem.
- Author
Daniel Williams
