Slots to think about

Dunedin City Council meets this week to debate the place of pokie machines in society. Charmian Smith looks beyond the flashing lights to some of the deeper issues.

It's dark in the pokie parlour, but for the bright, garish screens of the machines.

It is quiet too, with the exception of the occasional encouraging electronic burble.

People playing the machines lean forward, concentrating on the rolling pictures on the screen as they push the buttons repeatedly.

They can place a bet every three or four seconds on these machines.

There's no sense of time or of the outside world here, as any windows are blacked out.

For the record, it is not yet lunchtime.

The scene is typical of many of the 49, class-4 non-casino gaming venues in Dunedin.

Together, they account for 605 gaming machines, spread across pubs, clubs, and sports venues - places whose primary activity is entertainment, recreation, or leisure.

These machines, commonly known as pokies, are just one of the many ways to gamble in New Zealand.

Others include buying a Lotto ticket, scratchie or raffle ticket, playing at casino tables, or betting on the internet.

In these types of gambling the odds are always against you.

In other forms, such as betting on horse races or the sharemarket, if you put in the effort to research and understand the system, the horses or companies, you can raise the odds.

But pokies are in a league of their own, according to Thomas Moore, of the Problem Gambling Foundation's (PGF) Dunedin branch.

"With pokie machines the attraction is undoubtedly an escape from reality, whereas with casino tables, track betting and sports betting it's excitement.

"They are two quite different threads and it's most common that gamblers don't mix them," he says.

According to Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) figures, only 15% of the adult population play pokies but player losses account for about $1 billion, half the total amount lost in gambling in New Zealand each year.

About 20% of regular gaming-machine players are likely to have a gambling problem and about 85% of gambling helpline callers are pokie players.

The whole issue of gambling, especially pokie-machine gambling, is vexed.

"These gaming machines exist primarily to raise money for community purposes," Internal Affairs Minister Nathan Guy was reported as saying in Gambit late last year, the department's newsletter on gambling affairs.

The trusts and societies that own and operate the machines are required to distribute a little more than third of the profit they make (about $300 million last year) to charitable groups, non-commercial purposes beneficial to the community, or to "promoting, controlling, and conducting race meetings under the Racing Act 2003, including the payment of stakes", depending on their constitution or trust deed.

About another third goes to the Government as a tax, and the remainder to the societies and venues for the costs associated with operating the machines.

So, about one dollar in three lost on the machines goes back to the community.

On the other side of the ledger is the heavy cost of gambling both to individuals and to the community.

There are few benefits for individual players, apart perhaps from a brief escape from reality and an apprehensive flutter, almost always followed by a feeling of physical and emotional depletion the following day, according to Mr Moore.

A progression of problems is associated with gambling, from heavy gamblers who gamble often and with large amounts, to pathological gamblers who have probably lost everything and find themselves deep in debt or even in court for stealing money to fund their gambling addiction.

It is estimated that problem gamblers account for 40% to 60% of all losses ($400 million to $600 million every year), according to the Problem Gambling Foundation.

Beyond the problem gamblers themselves are their families, friends and others who may also be affected.