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Desperate poker machine gamblers are stripping homes of essential fittings to finance their habit.
Some Housing New Zealand tenants in South Auckland have ripped carpet, ovens, stair rails, doors and water cylinders from their homes and sold them to scrap yards and pawnbrokers.
A Manurewa woman, who did not want to be named, told the Herald her husband's problem gambling had escalated from spending "$10 every now and then" to selling his family's hot water supply and oven for his pokie fix at a local bar.
"He ripped out the hot water cylinder and sold it for $230 at a scrap metal yard," she said. "I think it was later that week when he took the oven and sold that too - it didn't seem to bother him that we had two children to feed."
The 23-year-old woman, who has since divorced the man, moved from their Otara state house to her parents' home with her two children, aged 1 and 5, while her ex-husband's gambling continued.
"As soon as he got paid on Wednesday night it was gone in a few hours. It was pointless me talking to him. Bills were falling behind and our kids needed to be fed. I was on the point of a nervous breakdown."
The couple lost their furniture, their refrigerator and television to debt collectors after the man used them as collateral for $4000 worth of loans from local finance companies.
Housing New Zealand spokeswoman Kathryn O'Sullivan said the department made its own investigation into the claims but was not aware of items being stolen from its homes by problem gamblers. "If we were aware of this happening, then obviously we would take it very seriously," said Ms O'Sullivan.
But Maxine Pairama, who counsels people referred by the courts to Manukau's Salvation Army Problem Gambling Services, backed the solo mother's claims, and said she knew of other instances of people stripping their homes.
"It's quite common because if you can get money from it and can feed your addiction then so be it.
"These people have an urge and they have to satisfy it regardless. If they don't have the means to go out and get themselves help, then that's all they know."
Ms Pairama said pokie addicts were extracting "as much as they can" from their homes.
"I know of one place in Manurewa where brand new carpet was removed from the entire house, along with the oven, curtains, doors and the copper water cylinder, which is worth a bit."
She is hoping the Manukau City Council will cap the number of gaming venues in the city to combat pokies, which cost South Auckland close to $20 million in the three months to September.
The council received more than 6000 submissions in favour of a proposed sinking lid policy, which would reduce the number of gaming venues to 70.
The council's policy and activities committee will decide next Thursday whether to reduce the number, and will present its findings to the full council in early December.
