Students forewarned about Gambling Addiction

Students told to avoid pokies

LIFELINE is working to keep the next generation of Fraser Coast residents out of the quicksand of gambling addiction.

Rick Whittle works as a community educator and he gives up to 12 presentations every week to high school students all over the Wide Bay region.

This means that 18,000 young people will have been warned about the potential dangers of playing the pokies and other forms of gambling every year.

It is hoped that many will take the warnings to heart, and not end up contributing too much to the $14 million that pours through the pokies every month in the region.

“It (gambling addiction) can happen to anyone” said Mr Whittle.

He has seen 16-year-old girls, 65-year-old pensioners and middle aged bankers fall to addiction.

While he says it is not always the pokies – one story of a student from Bundaberg losing $30,000 from her dad's credit card on illegal online gaming springs to mind – the speed at which people can fall prey to pokies sets them apart.

“One woman I spoke to said she became addicted within a week,” he said.

The Federal Government is pushing for limits on the amount people can lose on poker machines at any one time, but Mr Whittle will believe in change when he sees it.

“These reforms have all been suggested before,” he said.

He also responded to the claim made by Clubs Australia last week that the reforms were “un-Australian”.

“Isn't it un-Australian to see people lose their jobs, their home or their family because of a problem and do nothing about it?”