Spot the harm and stop the harm caused by risky gambling

South Australians are being urged to rethink the everyday effects of gambling on their lives.

Gambling Help Services provides free and confidential support. Picture: Russell Millard

When South Australians Spot The Harm, they can Stop The Harm caused by risky gambling, which is more widespread than is perceived.

Gambling Harm Support SA wants people to rethink the everyday effects of gambling on their lives and recognise the harms, so they can adjust their behaviour and seek support before the harm becomes serious.

Many South Australians recognise the financial harms that gambling can cause but lesser-known are the psychological, work, social and physical harms that are also likely.

While sports betting is an issue that has gained community prominence, participation has not overtaken other forms of gambling including pokies, lotteries, Keno, scratchies and casino gaming that remain more prevalent.

Gambling Harm Support SA manager Rory Spreckley says more than 100,000 South Australians regularly participate in some level of risky gambling but more than 200,000 more are negatively affected by someone else’s gambling, making it a significant public health challenge.

“Thirty-eight per cent of South Australian adults believe gambling harm is only the serious types of harms – losing your house, relationship breakdown and so on,” he says.

“But they don’t think about why they’re in a bad mood after betting on the horses all Saturday and not backing a winner. When they’re snapping at the kids or yelling at their partner and those sorts of things, they don’t conceptualise that it’s gambling harm.

“Gambling harm does manifest with a lot of co-occurring issues and one of the highest is suffering from mental health. Financial stress and relationship harm are quite significant as well.”

Gambling Harm Support SA manager Rory Spreckley.

Gambling Harm Support SA has developed a new website that encourages South Australians to think about whether they or someone they know may be suffering from the negative consequences of gambling.

The Spot The Harm. Stop The Harm. resources include videos highlighting some of the early signs of gambling harm, including a worker becoming inattentive, a mother missing dinner with her family and a man who cannot sleep.

“When people fixate on gambling to the detriment of other things they should be thinking about, that’s an early sign of harm,” Spreckley says.

“We’ve also used word play (in radio advertising) so if we say ‘instant’, do you think coffee or do you think scratchies? Or if we say ‘multi’, do you think vitamins or bets? If we say ‘21’ do you think birthday or blackjack? We aim to speak to the whole community, not just gamblers but people who don’t gamble and are thinking about a mate or are the partner of a gambler who’s probably gambling too much.”

The website includes personal stories, self-help strategies and tips on how to start a conversation with someone who may be struggling with gambling.

It links to free, confidential gambling services available across SA such as face-to-face counselling, financial counselling, the Gambling Helpline and Gambling Help Online. It also provides information on how people can bar themselves or another from gambling in person, over the phone and online.

gamblingharmsupport.sa.gov.au

Finding a way out of despair

Relationships Australia (SA) Gambling Help Services practice manager Tracey Nye. Picture: Russell Millard

Tracey Nye knows only too well the human cost of gambling harm.

As the practice manager of Relationship Australia SA’s Gambling Help Services she’s been at the heart of an organisation that has supported thousands of people caught in its insidious tendrils.

And one thing is perfectly clear. “Gambling doesn’t discriminate,” she says. “It can affect anybody.”

Gambling Help Services provides free and confidential support to individuals, couple and families experiencing gambling-related harm through therapeutic and financial counselling and group programs.

Nye has seen many examples where gambling – which might have started innocently with someone simply slipping a few dollars into a poker machine slot – has spiralled out of control, in some cases leading to property loss and relationship breakdown.

“Most people think when you’re gambling, the only problem is with your finances,” she says.

“But there are higher rates of domestic and family violence, mental health, drug and alcohol, depression and anxiety – if you’re gambling at harmful levels you’re more likely to be experiencing those other things as well.”

Nye says that with gambling “embedded” in the Australian way of life almost no-one is immune to the adrenaline hit it can provide.

“People will come to see me and I’ll ask if they remember the first time they gambled,” she says.

“They’ll say something like: ‘I went to the pub with a friend and I put a few dollars in the pokies’ or ‘I played at the casino or I placed a bet online – and I won. I thought that was easy money so I started to go back and do more’.” The trouble comes when people find themselves caught in a cycle that becomes difficult to stop despite the harms they may start to experience.Nye says gambling trends have changed in the two decades since she started as a counsellor. “Twenty years ago we were seeing people coming in with harm from gambling on the pokies,” she says.

“What we’re seeing now is a lot more people coming in who are experiencing harm gambling on online platforms, sports betting and virtual casinos. The stats show that if you’re a male aged between 18 and 34 and you’re employed and you live with dependent children you’re more likely to be experiencing gambling harm – that’s a massive shift from the kind of demographic that we saw 20 or so years ago.”

The change is due to the rise of – and easy access to – online gambling opportunities.

“Young people get exposed to it at such a young age and it can quickly develop into an addiction,” Nye says. “I’m seeing more younger men coming in now – they’re only in their mid-20s and they’re already in significant debt.

“I feel for the younger generation coming through now. They’re bombarded with messaging that doesn’t identify the harms. They’ve got it on their phones and they’ve got it in their social circles.”

While people will often recognise they have a gambling problem, Nye says many often wait for some time before seeking professional help, preferring to first try strategies such as barring themselves from venues or websites, or limiting their access to money on their own.

“What drives a lot of people into the service initially is usually the financial harm that gambling for a period of time has actually created,” she says.

“What we often find once we start talking to people is that the harm is wider spread than they may have realised, affecting their relationships and their own mental health, with increased anxiety and depression.”

She says it is important people reach out for support before their gambling hits the “upper end” of the spectrum. “We usually find those strategies can be really helpful,” Nye says.

“But you’re more likely to succeed in reducing gambling harm if you also speak to someone to understand the cycle and the harm ... and what can be done to manage it.”

rasa.org.au/support/services/gambling-help-service/

Anne reflects on the ‘vicious cycle’

Relationships Australia (SA) Gambling Help Services recipient Anne. Picture: Russell Millard

Anne’s rollercoaster gambling journey has taken her from the depths of personal despair to a position where she is today making a real difference in the lives of others – and loving it.

And it all started with a simple hotel dinner.

“My (then) partner and I were having a meal at the pub and he suggested, ‘Let’s go and have a play’,” the now 54-year-old, who works as volunteer as part of Relationship Australia SA’s Gambling Help Services Lived Experience in Gambling Harm program, recalls.

“I wasn’t really interested in the pokies at all but we won enough money to pay for our meal – and while I remember thinking ‘that’s pretty good’ it didn’t really have much effect on me at that stage,” she says.

“However, I went back again soon after and won $50 ... and there was a little twinkle then.”

Fanned by the lights and sounds of the machine – and the expectation that another win was only the next button-press away – that “little twinkle” soon grew into an all-consuming fire. “I was initially only spending $10 or $20 (at a time) but as time went on I felt like I needed more money to play them,” Anne says.

“Sometimes that $20 would be gone in five minutes and than I’d have nothing. So I started believing that I needed at least $50 each time ... and that amount kept going up.”

While she was careful to try to only “play with the money” she had – and continued to meet all the rent and other household obligations – the strain was showing. “It got to the stage where it was getting really bad and I would spend more than I had – and I then would have to get food vouchers and try and survive like that,” Anne recalls.

“I was so exhausted by trying to run around and make up the money I was losing. I also got sick and tired of it overtaking my life and me not enjoying the things I used to enjoy. It affected me emotionally a lot.”

She eventually realised she needed professional support to help break the connection. “I’d go in there and I wouldn’t be able to pull myself away,” she says. “I’d just be stuck in that little bubble, as I called it – just me and the machine. The pull was just way too strong for me to overcome by myself.”

She found her way out by reaching out to a gambling helpline counsellor, who stressed how the poker machines were programmed to attract players, to keep them playing – and for the players to lose far more often than not.

“I was shocked because I knew nothing about that – but it was that increased understanding and awareness of how the machines worked that gave me the drive to stop and say, ‘I’m not going to win, so I’m not going to do it any more’.”

Anne subsequently had further counselling through Relationship Australia SA’s Gambling Help Service, where she was recruited to share her story as a volunteer speaker through its Lived Experience in Gambling Harm program – a role she today finds hugely fulfilling.

“For the last three years I’ve been going out into the community as a volunteer and telling my story to people from all walks of life – and I know it’s had a positive effect on a lot of people,” she says. “It’s been great to let them know they’re not alone and that they can get out of that vicious cycle, because that’s what it is.”

More people are wanted to join the Lived Experience Volunteer Speaker program to help raise awareness about gambling harm in SA.

gamblinghelpsa.org.au/lived-experience/

Originally published as Spot the harm and stop the harm caused by risky gambling