Toowoomba wastes millions of dollars in gambling

TOOWOOMBA residents wasted $6.5 million on gambling in August this year.

The Garden City spent the 10th highest amount on gambling behind the greater southeast region, Cairns, Townsville and Mackay.

On average, $305,000 per hour was lost to gaming machines across Queensland in August.

Gambling researcher Charles Livingstone from Monash University said August was often a high-revenue month for operators, with trends showing a spike towards the middle of the year, before spending drops at the start of summer.

He said he was concerned by rising poker machine revenue, which looked set to grow as manufacturers worked to make their products more enticing.

“Essentially it comes down to the intensification of gaming machines, they’re becoming more sophisticated … more attractive, thus more addictive, and the end result is that we’re seeing significant increases in the amounts of money people are losing,” he said.

“It’s a very powerful addiction, it’s very hard once people have got the habit to give it up, and I think unfortunately most of this revenue comes off the back of people who have a gambling problem or are experiencing significant harm from it.”

Mr Livingstone said it was likely around “two-thirds” of Queensland’s pokies spending came from people who suffered from addiction and said the machines caused “enormous harm” within Australia.

“If you concentrate machines in areas where people are under stress, whether that’s poverty or long commutes or new house estates, then what you find is they tend to make lots of money,” he said.

However Clubs Queensland said it worked closely with the industry to ensure punters were “safe and responsible”.

“Clubs are very vigilant when it comes to gaming … we adhere very, very tightly to the responsible gaming practices that have been developed,” Clubs Qld spokeswoman Laura Bos said. She said the August figures were a “bounce back” after a downturn in recent years.