Gambling crisis looms

EXPERTS have warned Queensland faces a “significantly concerning” gambling crisis as new data reveals almost $4 billion was gambled away last year, the most in the state’s history.

Almost 60 per cent of the $3.93 billion gambled in 2017 was put through poker machines but researcher Charles Livingstone said the real percentage could be as high as 75 per cent, with a large portion of the $731 million spent at casinos also spent on the pokies.

Dr Livingstone, a Monash University gambling researcher, said the growth in pokies spending was damaging the state’s economy and tearing families apart. “If I was the Queensland Government I’d be worried,” he said.