AUSTRALIANS spent $19 billion on gambling in 2009 and 62 per cent of this money was fed into poker machines. There are 200,000 pokies Australia-wide, more than half are in NSW. In some venues it is possible to load $10,000 into a poker machine at a time. Someone playing at “high intensity” – multiple lines and credits will lose on average $1,200 an hour.
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Surely its time to take strong action about this. Its not gambling as such but straight out robbery.
I would like to see the machines banned completely but this is unlikely to happen unless we have a strong government and that’s not likely.
The answer is very simple I think. Divide the club members into what it costs to run a club and that would be the membership cost per member. I once belonged to a club on the Gold Coast with no poker machines. It had a comparably modest joining fee, nice, essential amenities, and each member paid an equal share of the running costs and above all, no problem gamblers.
In our clubs with poker machines they depend on problem gamblers to subsidise the non-gamblers.
FRANK CRICHLOW
MIRANDA
