"Sarah" says poker machines ruined her life.
"Rock bottom probably came at the point when you are choosing to live or die," she says. "When you've exhausted all your avenues of borrowing money and you just feel worse and worse."
Her introduction to poker machines came seven years ago. It seemed harmless enough. Sarah and her family would have a go on the pokies after enjoying a Sunday lunch at a local hotel.
But what started out as fun soon became a dangerous habit for the sole parent.
Sarah was visiting her local pokies venue up to three times a week and spending a large part of her pay packet, sometimes $1000, on 20-cent machines. Her biggest win was $3000.
Like many problem gamblers, the pokies were an escape from the hard work of raising a son on her own and an antidote to loneliness. Ensconced in front of a machine, the realities of the world disappeared.
"You cross over from the real world into another world and it's at that point you are gone. Even if you win money you'll keep playing until you leave with nothing," she says.
Even with support from her family, counselling services from Gamblers Help and excluding herself from venues, it has taken Sarah two years to beat her pokies addiction. It is an addiction that can have an impact far quicker than drugs or alcohol, she says.
"It's probably one of the most devastating forms of addiction because it can ruin your life in a veryquick time," she says. "I think if you are a drug addict or an alcoholic you can have 10 or 20 years before something really serious happens. But if you are a gambler you can lose your house, your car and your family within a year."
'You just feel numb. You are in a zone'
"Graham" says he has lost $120,000 on poker machines over the past 10 years. "You just feel numb," he says. "You are in a zone. They hook you in for a lot longer than standing at the TAB or playing scratchies or playing Lotto. You're in front of a machine and it just hooks you in to the last dollar. With the ATMs just outside the door, it guaranteed I was going to lose pretty well whatever I had in the bank."
Graham started gambling to escape boredom and work stress. After six months, he was hooked.
"I was really scrounging to find a decent place to live, to buy fuel for the car," he says. "I went without new clothes for a long, long period. It affects your lifestyle dramatically.
"Friends start wondering why you are dropping off the scene or why you can't come around or meet them for dinner. They don't know you haven't got enough money to buy dinner or even sometimes a cup of coffee. Your social life just dwindles down to nothing. You're just living from pay packet to pay packet."
He says 80 per cent of his wage went into the machines. "It was crippling me. I had a really good job. It paid well but I became the working poor. I was just keeping up appearances. Sometimes it got desperate. I might have a few dollars on me and just go to the nearest poker machine and see if I could capitalise - to try and get some more money so I could buy some decent food - but invariably I lost."
Graham, in his late 40s, is single and has recently been forced to moved back to his parents' house. He says he stopped playing the machines for 14 months, but recently "relapsed". "I'm getting back into bad habits again. I'm scrounging for money again. I've got to watch my spending until I properly
stop gambling again. It's insidious."
