Pokie spending is on the rise in Victoria. While this is not a particular bad situation, it is made worse by the fact that a new study has found that a significant portion of pokie spending comes from areas in which unemployment rates are highest. According to a report in the Herald Sun, the area with the most pokie losses is the City of Greater Dandenong, where players spent $57 million on pokies over a six-month period last year.
This equals a loss of $514.39 per adult. Responsible gambling advocate Paul Bendat noted that the city has the highest unemployment rate in Victoria. At 9.2%, Dandenong’s unemployment rate is 3.5% higher than the national average. In Brimbank, the unemployment rate is 8.95%. Over the course of six months last year, pokie losses equated to $472.12 per adult, the second biggest losses in the state.
Maribyrnong, with an unemployment rate of 7.77%, saw pokie losses worth $442.04 per adult. The point is further proven by taking a look at cities in which unemployment rates are low. For example, Surf Coast has an unemployment rate of 3.91%. In this city, there was a loss of just $65.04 per adult. “There is a clear correlation between unemployment rates and poker machine losses,” says Mr Bendat.
“It’s people who don’t have things going on in their lives that end up having a problem”. While you would certainly think that unemployed individuals would spend less money on pokies because they have less disposable income, the opposite seems to be true. With more free time on their hands, unemployed adults are more likely to spend their time in pubs and pokie clubs.
As such, it is important that safeguards and put into place to counteract this, such as lowered betting limits.
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