Pokies addiction leads to loss of family home

Local democracy reporter

Auckland councillor Josephine Bartley has seen first-hand the destructive impact of problem gambling and is calling for changes to the way the pokie machine industry is regulated.

Bartley is the deputy chairperson of the council’s regulatory committee and grew up in Māngere, south Auckland.

She said her mother Ruth, who died in 2019, was addicted to playing pokie machines.

‘‘My mother was a chronic problem gambler and we lost our family home because of it,’’ she said. ‘‘So I fully understand the pain it causes.’’

Bartley said it was a surprise to her and her siblings when they first became aware of their mother’s prolific gambling habit.

‘‘We found out after people started telling us how much money she owed them.’’

Bartley’s dad died in 1997. Her mother’s gambling spiralled out of control after that and eventually led to the bank foreclosing on the family home, she said.

‘‘That’s the thing with addiction, you can’t control it.’’

But Bartley said despite the impact it had on them, her mother never got treatment for her gambling problem.

Ruth died in 2019 and Bartley said coming to terms with her mother’s addiction hadn’t been easy for the family.

‘‘We’ve been through hell and back since. But we’ve had to carry on as a family and be there for each other. It’s a long journey.’’

She said increasing the powers councils have to regulate the industry is needed, as local authorities are limited in what they can do to address the impact of problem gambling under the Gambling Act 2003.

‘‘We need to have more controls over where pokie machines are located and how many there are,’’ Bartley said.

‘‘Because we know they are in neighbourhoods where we already have high levels of deprivation, where people are struggling.’’

A report to the Auckland Council’s regulatory committee in 2020 found more than half the people in the region seeking treatment for pokie machine gambling addictions were from south Auckland.

Problem Gambling Foundation spokesperson Andree Froude said the stats highlighted the need for tighter regulation of the industry.

‘‘And it just shows how much money is being sucked out of these communities by pokie machines,’’ she said.

In October 2020, Auckland Council voted to retain its sinking lid policy for class 4 gaming machines in the region.

The policy means no new consents are issued for new

ABIGAIL DOUGHERTY/STUFF Josephine Bartley with a picture of her mother Ruth, who she says had a chronic gambling problem that led to her losing the family home.