Pokies scourge sucking $30 million a month from Gold Coast families but Labor too cowardly to act

POKIES are wreaking havoc on vulnerable Gold Coast families, leaving a trail of misery and sucking $30 million a month out of household budgets. But the supine Labor government in Brisbane are too cowardly to act.

Figures show Gold Coasters are pumping $30 million a month into pokie machines. Picture: William West/AFP

THE Gold Coast has a gambling problem. It tears families apart - and we’re all complicit.

I’m talking, of course, about the pernicious scourge of pokies.

Anyone who doubts the power of pokies to wreak havoc in communities should listen to the divorce lawyers and charity workers who encounter its aftermath, or just read some of the awful stories that pass through Southport Magistrates Court. In the past year it has passed judgment on a young man who stole more than $10,000 from his wheelchair-bound grandmother and a pokies-obsessed woman jailed after stealing from a school P&C. Neither person had any prior criminal history, and both used the money to feed their gambling habits.

Their shame was public. But mostly the misery of pokie addiction plays out as family drama, behind closed doors, for many thousands more.

Statistics show Gold Coasters are pumping $30 million a month into pokie machines at pubs and clubs. Many wrongly believe this is money that is flowing directly to organisations that do good in the community. Some does, but it is a fraction of the total spent. And how many people know that one of the biggest operators of pokies on the Gold Coast is actually supermarket giant Woolworths?

Woolworths is among the biggest operators of pokies on the Gold Coast, with 750 machines. Picture: Joel Carrett/AAP

Via the ALH Group, of which it owns 75%, Woolworths controls 18 pokies sites at taverns throughout the Gold Coast, with a total of 750 machines.

Estimates of the amount of money made by poker machines at pubs and clubs vary wildly. But even if the Woolies machines are only pulling in a highly conservative $60,000 a year, that’s $45 million sucked out of the budgets of ordinary Gold Coast families. A bit more than the cost of the free apples given out to kids in-store.

It appears odd that a company with Woolworths’ family-friendly persona is tied up in the pokies trade. Like everything to do with pokies, the explanation leads us to the real villain of the piece: the State Government in Brisbane.

Woolies need to own taverns because our ridiculous liquor licensing laws not only prevent the sale of alcohol in supermarkets, but require retailers to own a pub before they can open a bottle shop.

It is a law penned in Brisbane, just like the legislation to introduce pokies into Queensland in February 1992.

So it is to the rabble in Brisbane we must look if we wish to force change. And there is much the State Government could do.

* They could legislate to impose $1 bet limits on pokie machines, which would massively reduce the amount per hour that addicts could lose.

* They could introduce legislation to require far stricter ID checks at venues, as they have done for nightclubs in Safe Night Precincts, forcing pubs and clubs to identify problem gamblers and deny them access to machines wherever they go.

* They could even phase out pokies altogether, as the Labor Party in Tasmania has proposed.

But despite the clear misery caused by pokies, the State Government have zero intention of doing any of these things. This column asked the office of Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath if the Palaszczuk government might take some inspiration from its colleagues in Hobart.

Attorney General Yvette D'Ath. Picture: Dan Peled/AAP

“The government does not intend to propose similar measures in Queensland,” a spokesperson for the Minister said. “There is a statewide cap on the total number of gaming machines that can operate in Queensland’s hotels and clubs. In fact, the number of operational machines in Queensland is currently 1795 below the cap (as at December 31 2017) The Government also distributes approximately $54 million a year of gambling revenue to Queensland communities under the Gambling Community Benefit Fund.”

It is worth pointing out that $54 million is a pitiful fraction of the $2.3 billion blown on pokies in Queensland last financial year, of which $687 million flowed directly into government coffers.

And well done Ms D’Ath and colleagues for the heroic decision to cap the number of pokies machines at saturation point.

What about the LNP opposition? A spokesperson promised to refer this column’s inquiries to the party’s policy unit for consideration. Translation: “We don’t have a policy.”

Ms D’Ath’s spokesperson didn’t mention that the government last year did make one small change to laws. In a move described as “just insane” by problem gambling researcher Dr Charles Livingstone, at the same time that liquor trading hours were reduced to prevent venues serving alcohol beyond 2am, pokies trading hours were quietly increased, allowing the machines to keep going until 5.30am. On the Gold Coast, 20 pubs has so far taken up the option of the extended trading hours.

Pokies expert Dr Charles Livingstone has described recent changes to Queensland law as “just insane”. Picture: Valeriu Campan

There is no obvious way in which this measure can be seen to be in the public good. Quite simply, it is hard to imagine anyone wishing to play pokies through the night until 5.30am who does not have a serious problem.

This is just not good enough. Government is supposed to serve the people, not suck them dry.

Late Labor leader Wayne Goss, who was Premier when pokies were introduced to Queensland, bitterly regretted the decision.

“I wish I’d never brought in poker machines, I think they’re a scourge,’’ he said in 2008. “The problem with poker machines in my view is that the people who mainly play them are the people who can least afford to do so. I wish I hadn’t done it.’’

The current Labor government, solidly ensconced in their ‘Tower of Power’ in Brisbane, has the political capital to row back on Goss’s mistake.

But sadly this government lacks the backbone or imagination to propose any policies that might make a real difference to the lives of ordinary Queenslanders.

Those most affected by pokies addiction are usually among society’s most vulnerable - the very people the Labor Party pretends to cherish.

But like a hopeless addict transfixed by the flashing lights and merry chirps of a pokie machine, the government appears blind to what goes on around them.

Their inaction guarantees Southport Magistrates Court will play host to many more tales of pokies-induced misery in years to come.

WORD OF THE WEEK: SKERRICK

You may have heard people say things such as “there’s not a skerrick of food left”. You may even have said it yourself. But what exactly is a skerrick? Nobody knows. It appears there’s not a skerrick of hope we’ll find out.