(Transcript from SBS World News Radio)
The 20th anniversary of poker machines in South Australia has brought a renewed a push for tougher steps to curb problem gambling - including calls for a referendum on phasing out pokies in pubs and clubs.
Independent MP Nick Xenophon, who rose to political power on the issue, believes Australia's pokie addiction is costing people more than just money.
He says families are destroyed and lives lost to a problem that can be tackled, if only governments find the will to wean themselves off poker machine revenues.
Senator Xenophon says the pokies problem is especially severe in his home state of South Australia.
Karen Ashford reports.
(Click on the audio tab above to hear the full report)
If all the dollar coins lost to poker machines in South Australia in the past 20 years were laid side by side, Nick Xenophon says they'd stretch more than 300,000 kilometres - enough to circumnavigate the Earth nearly eight times.
"It's not a case of enough is enough - it's a case of enough is too much. $12 billion lost in a small state such as South Australia, having literally tens of thousands of people affected by it still, indicates there's a need for reform."
The impact of addication isn't confined to the gambler.
The Productivity Commission calculates problem gamblers account for 40 per cent of pokies losses, and each addict affects an average of seven other people -- family and friends trying to pick up the pieces.
Mark Henley from Welfare organisation Uniting Communities says South Australia is home to some of the most vulnerable gambling addicts in the nation.
"Poorer people generally are attracted to pokies too, because there's the vain hope you actually might end up with some money tonight you can buy some food with. And in fact the highest per capita spending in this state is in regional communities - Port Augusta, Mount Gambier, Port Pirie, places like that. And certainly a part of the reason there is you've got high levels of spending amongst indigenous communities as well as some cultural groups and we know there are particular issues with the Indo Chinese community; some European communities too."
The agencies have joined forces with Senator Nick Xenophon to push for a referendum to phase out pokers machines in pubs and clubs and confine them to casinos, as is the case in Western Australia.
Senator Xenophon says he's so frustrated at the lack of action from consecutive governments that he's organising Bills to be introduced into state and federal parliaments in coming weeks to give the public a voice in the poker machine debate.
"And the way to break through the political impasse at a state and federal level is to have a plebiscite and referendum so that people can actually have a say once and for all as to whether they want pokies in pubs and clubs at all, or at the very least to reduce pokies addictiveness by having $1 maximum bets as recommended by the Productivity Commission."
But Ian Horne from the Australian Hotels Association says it's not that simple.
He says the South Australian government's revenue from poker machines of nearly $6 billion a year provides vital funds for public services such as health, police and infrastructure like new hospitals and the revamped Adelaide Oval.
Mr Horne described poker machine takings as a social tax which delivers net positive benefits to the state, and thinks it's wrong to punish an industry that's making a significant employment and investment contribution to the state.
Hotels argue their survival is dependent on poker machines and should those machines be taken away, proprietors should be compensated for their loss.
Those opposed to the machines disagree.
"Forget those places getting compensation - I want compensation and I'm sure other pokie addicts who have lost everything because of that illegal terrible product, well it's not illegal, with that highly dangerous product, we want compensation, they shouldn't get compensation."
Julia Karpathakis is a member of Pokies Anonymous, a support group for poker machine addicts.
She lost her home to her pokies addiction.
"Recovering financially is a huge problem after something like that. It's horrible. You might as well make a hole and sit in there, it's horrible, it's the worst kind of life you could ever have."
And to illustrate their point, Senator Xenophon, Mark Henley and their fellow anti-pokie campaigners have fed handfuls of fake thousand dollar notes into a shredding machine, symbolising the fortune they say is lost around the clock.
Sound of shredding⦠"Here we are just shredding poker machine money. I mean that's the hourly rate of poker machine spending, that's $72,000 per hour, every hour of the day, every hour of the year goes into poker machines, this is just how you can waste money, just throw it away. Keep feeding, keep feeding, keep feeding" whirr of machine fades out.
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