Problem gambling well hidden, but seeking help should not be feared

Every year, the New South Wales Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority releases its annual figures showing the year-on-year increase in the state’s gambling habits. These increases are now anticipated, expected and even budgeted for in the state government’s revenue streams.  

The suffering of an individual and their family from the presence of a gambling problem can be destructive beyond measure, yet gambling’s very existence has become a lucrative dependency for the governments and industries which facilitate, and now rely on it.

New South Wales is the state most addicted to gambling in Australia, with Fairfield in Sydney’s west the most addicted suburb. Hot on its heels is Newcastle – which has a claim to fame as having 1 poker machine for every 52 people in its local government area.

The incredible and staggering facts and figures representing the flood of money being poured into the pokies should heed concern throughout the community.

Gambling can be a dark and lonely place.

However, it is a long-held national association with the punt, often referred to as part of the Australian way of life, which means the issue of problem gambling often struggles to enter the sphere of regular public conversation.

Many gains have been made in recent years helping society open up and grasp its fight with mental health, but gambling is yet to make a substantial indent into what we’re willing to talk about.

Shame, emotional torture, mental dysfunction and the loss of means well beyond financial to those who get caught up in the dark and isolated place of living with a gambling problem, means speaking up about it to family and friends is a seldom occurrence.

The Problem

Michael Bazaley, a Newcastle psychologist with over 20 years’ experience – including implementing a violent offenders' gambling program at Junee Prison – says people usually only seek help once their situation has reached well and truly beyond crisis point.

“Gambling has no physical presentation,” he says. “People can appear healthy, wealthy and wise but there’ll just be no money in their wallet. There’s often no physiological signs, it’s hidden. Others may not know about it until the last dollar is bet. There’s a lot of secrecy and it’s not visible.”

By the last dollar bet, Bazaley isn’t talking about the last note in your wallet on a Friday night out at the pub. He’s referring to the emptying of all your bank accounts, to the maximising of a credit card or two, to borrowed money, to the lending of cash from a friend and right down to the emptying of your car ash-tray, money-box or loose change dish at home. 

“People don’t seek help until something drastic happens like their wife or partner leaving,” Bazaley says. “It becomes a problem when it’s the full focus of your life.”

But that’s not to say you have to be in debt or be borrowing money to have a problem. Martina Winch, a gambling counsellor at Wesley Mission in Newcastle, echoes Bazaley’s thoughts.

“There’s a whole spectrum of clients with gambling problems, some might gamble $30 a week and some might gamble a few thousand a week, but it’s all relative to their income,” she says. “The behaviour still has the same effect, they’re doing something that’s not within their values or their doing something as a way to cope.”

Different schools of thought around problem gambling vary from considering it an addiction; that is - pathological gambling, and a compulsion; more aligned to cognitive thought processes.

“We at Wesley like to regard it as a faulty coping mechanism, so we teach our clients how to find healthier coping mechanisms,” Winch says.

Gambling in Newcastle

With 3079 pokies in the Newcastle local government area alone for a population base of just over 160,000, Newcastle’s status as a leader in machines per capita should be considered alarming. Having been described by gambling reform groups as ‘street corner casinos’, 31 clubs in Newcastle hold 2141 machines, while 65 pubs possess 938.

Broken down, that equals about 1 machine for every 52 people.

"A fun park" - How one client described NSW's plethora of pokies.

The lights and sounds of the machines are even more attractive to those who come to the area from other parts of the world previously unexposed to their lure.

“We have a lot of Asian clients who may have had very poor lives and they come out to Australia and they see opportunity everywhere in the pubs and clubs,” Winch says.

“I had one client from the United Kingdom even describe Australia as a ‘fun park’ because there’s machines everywhere.”

The habit

While the enticement of electronic entertainment is the first reason to pull people in to play the pokies, the continuation of the action usually results in a routine habit developing. Some players will quickly work out they can’t win and are just putting money in a bottomless pit, while others will begin the continual cycle which can become so difficult to break.

Initially a practice enjoyed socially with friends, gambling can quickly move to an individual activity for those who garner an interest. For those who stay and continue to play, the practice of playing follows a sequential process in the brain linked to the release of the chemical dopamine.

“With gambling, it lights up the same part of the brain as drugs and alcohol do,” Winch says. 

“They’re the same dopamine receptors that get activated. Dopamine is a chasing chemical, so you know when you have a few drinks and you have to have another one, you always have to have an extra one to maintain that level of inebriation. That’s why people with an alcohol problem, they can’t stop. It’s the same with gambling, it’s that chasing chemical that gets them back again.”

Intriguingly, Bazaley suggests that a self-confidence and sense of identity lies underneath the process of gambling.

“When a gambler wins you hear about it from here to Melbourne,” he says. “You never hear a smoker saying: ‘I smoked three packs today; a personal best’ – it just doesn’t happen.”

“It becomes a problem when it’s the full focus of your life.”

Winch, who is seeing more and more young clients through the free Wesley Mission gambling counselling service, says of people who may have a gambling problem: “The red flags are if they’re gambling their winnings and chasing their losses, the amount of money they spend and the amount of time they spend in a pub or a club gambling.”

The reluctance to talk

It’s estimated by the Commonwealth’s Department of Social Services that only 15% of problem gamblers in the community seek help for their problem.

A figure made even more potent when considering the University of Sydney’s research which suggests that over 40% of all spending on poker machines in Australia is done by problem gamblers.

So, of the $12 billion spent on pokies in the 2014-15 financial year across the country, $4.8 billion was contributed by people with a problem. Or, closer to home, of the $1.74 billion turned over in the Newcastle Local Government Area in 2015-16, a massive $696 million could be considered to have been done by those with a problem.

Yet remarkably, only 15% of the people who pumped that $696 million through the pokies in Newcastle sought help.

The Facts.

It’s easy to come to the conclusion there’s a lot of people with gambling problems in the community not seeking help. But why?

“Because gambling is a huge part of our culture and a lot of people have shame about gambling and don’t realise it’s a problem,” Winch says. “They’re not seeking help, they’re not looking for help, and they’re just trying to cope with it themselves. There’s a lot of secrecy and deceit that goes with gambling because of the shame involved.”

Winch’s suggestion that people are trying to cope with their problems on their own, highlights one area where the stigma around having a gambling problem needs to change. For those deeply ingrained with the cycle of gambling, simply stopping ‘having a punt’ is like putting a cookie jar in front of a child and expecting them not to touch it. The chances of long-term success are slim for a gambler trying to pull themselves out of a problem on their own.

“By themselves, it can be quite difficult if they don’t know how to control their urges and if they don’t understand the reasons themselves why they’re gambling,” Winch says. “That’s why counselling is really necessary, it’s a necessary part of changing the gambling behaviour because the people that are doing it haven’t got that awareness of their behaviours and the thought processes that lead to those behaviours.”

More of than not, the reasons why problem gamblers are gambling, are because of other issues in their lives. Many social and mental health issues can often be the precursor to the developing a gambling problem. Depression, anxiety and stress can lead to gambling becoming a coping mechanism. An outlet for people to remove their presence away from their real issues; an escape.

The recovery

Counselling or seeking help should not be something any gambler should fear. The ability to air one’s constant battle with the punt is usually considered the most reliving part of the process.

 “Often gamblers pre-contemplate for quite some time before making the first step – and that first step is acknowledgement,” Bazaley says.

“All therapy is structured cognitive-behaviour therapy,” he continues. “There’s so many confused thoughts for gamblers, so we help them clear those thought patterns.”

 “The struggle is they are always seeing opportunity, there’s a fantasy thinking structure happening.”

Counseling offers gamblers the tools to enable change. 

With methods of gambling available on your phone, computer and local pub or club, the access for problem gamblers to slip out of a recovery process is sweeping. While every client is treated in regards to their own situation, helping people sustain long-term change and recovery from a gambling problem requires the recognition of possible setback.

 “Addiction reversal should follow the cycle of change,” Bazaley says. “When people fail with the plan, they struggle. We build in lapse mechanisms to plans for that reason. It’s like when you’re on a diet, people have setbacks and that’s ok.”

The negative stigma around problem gambling usually results in many around a problem gambler naively suggesting to ‘just stop’, but Winch likens the ability to do so similar to helping someone recover from depression.

“Everyone knows that with someone that’s depressed, you can’t just tell them to snap out of it,” she says. “They’ve got to climb out of it. They’ve got to step out of it, step by step, and they need guidance with that if they don’t know how to do it themselves.”

Part of the gambling counselling process is helping people understand the reasons why they are gambling; one’s triggers, which can be: stress, anxiety, loneliness, boredom, relationship difficulties, short of finances and more.

Replacing gambling with other types of social activity, personal hobbies or interests, and forms of community engagement then helps facilitate a rounded recovery progression.

“You need practical strategies, you need to get the client to get an awareness of their thought processes so they can have control over that,” Winch says. “They need a holistic, life-balance model.”

They key to making permanent change once a problem has been acknowledged lies in the level of commitment from an individual.

“When they invest in change – we are here to offer the strategies and skills to enable that change,” Bazaley says.