Stop The Loss Coalition.

Peter Nicholson in The Australian.

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 14:45:22 +1000

Survey reveals support for stronger poker machine reform.

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 11:14:47 +1000

Survey reveals support for stronger poker machine reform.:

An overwhelming 70 per cent of the Australian electorate support serious poker machine reform to stem the losses suffered by people addicted to poker machines, a new survey by AMR Research has found.

Read the full release and see the survey results.

Pokies and the Australian addiction to gambling

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 10:29:10 +1000

Pokies and the Australian addiction to gambling:

Australians lose more money betting than citizens of any other country and slot machines are powering the problem, Oliver Milman writes for The Guardian.

The devil is in the detail of poker machine reform.

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 13:52:40 +1000

The devil is in the detail of poker machine reform.

Our latest ad. Click to view large.

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 08:56:00 +1000

Our latest ad. Click to view large.

Read an expert opinion on why the trial will fail.

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 22:14:19 +1000

Read an expert opinion on why the trial will fail.

A caring state is no nanny, it is doing its job. Chris...

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 10:11:00 +1000

A caring state is no nanny, it is doing its job.

Chris Middendorp, a Melbourne community worker, discusses why government intervention is a necessary step.

If you are currently suffering from poker machine addiction, help is at hand. The following list...

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 15:11:28 +1000

If you are currently suffering from poker machine addiction, help is at hand. The following list contains links to gambling support lines in your state or territory.

NSW - NT - QLD - SA - TAS - VIC - WA

"I didn’t choose to become an addict. Sure, I chose to play poker machines but I didn’t..."

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 09:47:00 +1000

“I didn’t choose to become an addict. Sure, I chose to play poker machines but I didn’t choose the consequences. There is a massive difference between recreation and addiction, and the sad truth is that one can lead to the other.”

- Tom Cummings is a former poker machine addict who has turned his attention to gambling reform and the industry in general.

Watch our new TV ad.

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 08:45:12 +1000

Watch our new TV ad.

487 poker machines in Melton, Victoria each collected more than $111,000.

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 10:26:19 +1000

Monash University gambling expert Dr Charles Livingstone said the impact of the losses was even worse than it might first appear.

“The Productivity Commission estimates that 40 per cent of pokie losses come from people with a serious gambling problem, and another 20 per cent from those with a less serious but nonetheless well-developed problem.”

(source: Melton Weekly)

Fascinating New York Times article on the pyschology of slot machine design: ''No other form of gambling manipulates the human mind as beautifully as these machines"

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 14:02:41 +1000

Fascinating New York Times article on the pyschology of slot machine design: ''No other form of gambling manipulates the human mind as beautifully as these machines"

"If you could walk for a day in my shoes, you’d be keen for poker machine reform. Yesterday, I..."

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:02:04 +1000

“If you could walk for a day in my shoes, you’d be keen for poker machine reform. Yesterday, I spoke with a man who spent several years on the street after he’d put a perfectly good Sydney house down the poker machines. Even though he’s lost everything, his addiction remains. I spoke with a very likeable man this morning who wept as he told me of his plans to suicide. He hates his inability to be free of the pokies. My tin pot theory about this addiction is that the cause is not located within an individual’s head andtherefore, neither is the cure. Boredom and isolation appear to play a major role. The kind of community engagement, where people’s contributions are valued and people take part in physical exercise, social fun, hobbies and learning of some kind, are the things that are usually missing in someone who becomes addicted to the spinning wheels that lead to poverty. I have no great feeling about mandatory pre-commitment because it seems to me a cheaper and more effective reform would be to simply limit the value of the bets that can be made. Maybe people would get bored and go home while they still have money in their pockets to pay the bills and feed the family. I urge our Prime Minister and all our MPs to give families a valuable gift this Australia Day.”

- The Reverend Graham Long, pastor of the Wayside Chapel in Sydney’s Kings Cross

A Sunshine Coast woman stole $117,000 for poker machine addiction

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:49:00 +1000

A Sunshine Coast woman stole $117,000 for poker machine addiction

Courier Mail: Poker machine losses follow Queensland floods

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:37:00 +1000

A very sad story in the Brisbane Courier Mail about how poker machine losses in Queensland increased significantly after last year’s floods:

Queenslanders blew $1.9 billion on the pokies last year in one of the state’s darkest gambling chapters, as punters lost $3600 a minute.

The 2011 loss figure is $100 million more than each of the previous two years, with Queenslanders losing record amounts on the pokies as the state battled to recover from a summer of natural disasters.

In a sad twist, experts believe the natural disaster hangover and the millions of dollars in flood assistance payments lining pockets could have ramped up the state’s losses.

“Pokie losses follow summer disasters”

The Victorian Government calculates that gamblers have a higher chance of winning Tattslotto Division 1 ($300,000 - $1,000,000 prize) than winning $5,000 on poker machines

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:29:00 +1000

The Victorian Government calculates that gamblers have a higher chance of winning Tattslotto Division 1 ($300,000 - $1,000,000 prize) than winning $5,000 on poker machines

"The pokies lobby is fond of saying that they don’t want any problem gamblers in their venues...."

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:16:00 +1000

“

The pokies lobby is fond of saying that they don’t want any problem gamblers in their venues. Yet they derive around 40 per cent of their revenue from those with such a problem, and another 20 per cent from those on the path to one. Their preferred ‘solution’ to problem gambling is more counselling. Unfortunately, although counselling can be very effective for those who use it, the vast majority of problem gamblers (probably 90 per cent or more) never access such services.

And, even more unfortunately, by the time gamblers do go to counsellors, the damage has been done: the family broken up, the kids traumatised, the money gone, the house sold, the job lost, the depression fully formed, health ruined, and in far too many cases a family member lost. Surely it would be far better to prevent the problem in the first place?

Gambling reform is about acknowledging we’ve got a problem, and dealing with it. How many broken homes, suicides, neglected kids and ruined lives are enough to convince them, and our political leaders, that it’s time we sorted this out?

”

- “A few home truths about pokies reform”, by Dr Charles Livingstone of Monash University

"Pokies are to gambling what crack cocaine is to drugs."

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:12:00 +1000

"Pokies are to gambling what crack cocaine is to drugs."

A truly heartbreaking story of how poker machine addiction led...

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:07:00 +1000

A truly heartbreaking story of how poker machine addiction led to the suicide of a 24 year old mother of two from Adelaide.

This chart from the Productivity Commission’s 2009 report...

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:57:00 +1000

This chart from the Productivity Commission’s 2009 report shows that “gaming machines” (read: poker machines) take players’ money more than 6 times faster than any other form of gambling.