Extended Queensland pokie trading hours labelled ‘insane’

A “CRAZY” practice is bilking billions of dollars from those who can least afford it, and it’s not only hurting those involved, their families and business, it’s condoned by the Government.

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SUBURBAN pubs are staying open past dawn to cater to poker machine desperates, as new figures show Queenslanders lost more than $2.5 billion on the pokies in the past year.

Almost 200 hotels across the state are staying open as late as 5.30am to cash in on the lucrative poker machine trade – a situation that’s been slammed as “crazy” by a leading expert on problem gambling.

Despite liquor trading hours being slashed by the Palaszczuk Government in 2016 in a bid to reduce booze-fuelled violence, gaming hours were extended.

Pubs that already had extended gaming hours to 5am before July 1, 2016, were able to apply for 5.30am trading even though liquor trading hours were reduced to 2am (or 3am in the state’s “safe night precincts”) at the same time.

Unlike liquor trading hours, which have been cut, gaming hours have been extended through to 5.30am.

Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation figures reveal the state’s 42,367 pokies plundered more than $2.5 billion from punters’ pockets in Queensland in the 12 months to November, up from $2.45 billion in 2015/16.

Pub poker machines were the biggest culprits, pulling in more than $115 million from punters in November alone, compared to club pokies, which reaped $86.5 million in takings.

The figures show 192 Queensland hotels are trading until between 4am and 5.30am to cater to pokie punters.

At 46, Brisbane has the most pubs with extended gaming hours, followed by the Gold Coast and Logan at 20 each.

Thirteen hotels statewide trade until 5.30am – six in Brisbane, four on the Gold Coast, two in Cairns, and one in Mackay.

Dr Charles Livingstone says ‘there’s no reason why we need to be playing poker machines at four or five o’clock in the morning – it’s just insane’. Picture: Valeriu Campan

The extended hours have led to a proliferation of signs outside pubs promoting “guaranteed trading hours” so gamblers know they can keep feeding the machines if they’re on a roll or are trying to punt their way out of the red.

Problem gambling researcher Charles Livingstone, a senior lecturer at Monash University’s School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, slammed extended gaming hours as “crazy” and said they were causing “massive harm”.

Dr Livingstone said extended hours were feeding gambling addictions as the battlers who typically played pub pokies until all hours were getting the same dopamine hit as drug addicts.

“It’s just crazy to extend access to the machines to people who are probably already in (financial) trouble,” he said.

“There’s no reason why we need to be playing poker machines at four or five o’clock in the morning – it’s just insane.”

Dr Livingstone said gambling addiction hurt not only problem gamblers but their families, employers and businesses through lost revenue.