A NEW study on gambling has confirmed a well-known fact: pokies losses are far higher in disadvantaged areas than wealthier communities.
The academic report reveals losses are closely tied with disadvantage and proves a link between high numbers of machines in suburbs like Braybrook and higher rates of loss.
The report, Modelling Vulnerability to Gambling-related Harm: How Disadvantage Predicts Gambling Losses, recommends tightening rules around pokies to protect vulnerable areas.
Co-author Charles Livingstone, of Monash University, said residents in the poorest areas were losing an average of $849 per adult each year compared with $298 in the most advantaged areas.
“For an area like Braybrook it’s a double-whammy. Not only do they spend a lot more money, but the number of pokies located in these areas causes a lot more harm,” he said.
Dr Livingstone said the latest study broke down losses to a more detailed level than previous studies, which tended to focus on local government areas. “This is further evidence of the need for local decisions around this.”
Councils are calling for improvements to the current regulatory system to give them more say in decisions around the location and number of gaming machines.
In August, the Weekly reported Brimbank Council was lobbying the state government to cut the number of gaming machines after a record pokies loss of $145.6 million in the past financial year — the largest in the state.
Data from the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation shows the city’s gamblers lost more than $400,000 a day in 2011-12. The average loss for each Brimbank adult was more than $1000 a year — also well above the state average of $613.
Dr Livingstone criticised the government’s reliance on taxes from gambling revenue.
“This is a regressive regime; the people who can least afford to contribute are contributing the most.”—Benjamin Millar
