MILDURA gamblers have been spending millions on pokies, and may be at risk of foregoing essentials as cost-of-living pressures bite, says the Greens candidate for Mildura.
Katie Clements said the local spending on poker machines remained “extremely high” and backed her party’s election platform to address gambling losses in the region.
“Just based on some figures, $17.5 million is spent on pokies in the Mildura geographical area alone – not the electorate,” Ms Clements said.
She said across the 214 days that pokies were operational in 2020-21, local residents spent about $81,000 a day.
After experiencing a dip during the pandemic, player losses from gambling in the Mildura LGA for 2021-22 year hit $29 million, which was just shy of the pre-pandemic mark ($29.9 million) in 2018-19.
Ms Clements said it was an “extraordinary” amount of money, and placed more burden on families living with cost-of-living pressures.
“The fear is that people are going to be missing out on essentials … to keep up their habits.”
The Greens have aimed to curb state-wide gambling, advocating for $1 bet limits, placing limits on cash payable at venues and banning gambling advertising in their election platform.
Mildura councillor, long-term advocate for tighter gambling controls and independent candidate Glenn Milne said the State Government should push to address gambling losses.
He said gambling controls were a “good idea” for the local community.
“Poker machines are intrinsically linked to family and domestic violence because of overspending,” Mr Milne said.
“You don’t want a big brother type policy,” he said. “But we need to know who’s gambling and know that they can afford to spend what they’re spending.”
Poker machine gambling has increased in Mildura, but in Victoria it decreased by 44 per cent between 2018-19 and 2020-21, according to the Victorian Gambling Foundation.
However, sports and race betting increased by 39 per cent between 2019-20 and 2020-21, with losses in 2020-21 reaching $2.33 billion.
Ms Clements said taking machines away was only part of the solution.
Mr Milne said an influx of betting advertising could lead to gambling issues among young people.
“Sports betting is a terrible thing because that’s all kids get,” Mr Milne said. “They listen to the radio, listen to the footy. And it is all about betting, betting, betting.”
