Whittlesea campaigners have thrown down the gauntlet to Australians to shake off the mantle of “world’s biggest losers”.
In a move they hope will spread across the nation, local neighbourhood houses and community groups have launched a March Away from Gambling campaign after new figures from H2 Gambling Capital (a global gambling data service) show that, on average, Australians lose the most money in the world.
“Let’s shed this title,” Thomastown Neighbourhood House manager Justine Sless said.
The neighourhood house and local libraries offer a calendar of free alternative activities next month to replace visits to pokies venues and other gambling outlets.
North East Primary Care Partnership organiser Dr Susan Rennie said the average loss per adult on gambling in Australia was more than $1000 a year, ‘‘significantly higher than our counterparts in Ireland, Canada, the US and Britain, who all lose less than half this amount”.
“Every day in the city of Whittlesea, $255,450 is lost on the pokies,” Dr Rennie said. “Last financial year that amounted to more than $93 million.”
Dr Rennie said the latest gambling loss statistics reinforced what Whittlesea campaigners had been saying for some time.
“Gambling is a product safety issue. At least half the amount gambled is pokie losses.”
She said that while fewer than a quarter of Australians played the pokies, a “bucket-load” of money was being made from these gamblers. She also drew a link between gambling and domestic violence, with 52 per cent of domestic violence victims coming from homes where gambling was a problem.
Dr Rennie said March Away from Gambling was an opportunity to remind people of the things they did before poker machines were introduced.
“Healthy communities are built by people participating fully in a wide range of leisure, sporting, social and civic events,” she said.
“Gambling can get in the way of that. Taking a month off is a great way to put the health and wealth back in your life.”
» Residents can sign up for the event atmarchawayfromgambling.org
» Gamblers Help: 1800 858 858 or gamblinghelponline.org.au
