Students bet on stunt to highlight gambling

AUT student Dafydd Barrar becomes a poker machine with some of the fake $5 million outside the casino yesterday. Photo / Greg Bowker

Fake banknotes adding up to $5.5 million were dumped outside Sky City's Auckland casino yesterday to dramatise New Zealanders' gambling losses every day.

A third-year communications class at AUT University started working with the Problem Gambling Foundation as a student project, but student Georgie Urlich, 20, said they decided to carry out the stunt on Gamble Free Day because they were concerned at the numbers of people losing money they could not afford to lose.

"We've set up a Facebook page so we can reach people of our age," she said. "Most of them are introduced to gambling by their parents. Another issue with the younger group is the whole internet side of things which is not researched yet."

Gamble Free Day was also marked by a family festival in Papakura and other events throughout the country.

Sky City host responsibility executive Rob Burrell met the students and agreed to meet them again next week.

Poker machine trusts are required to give at least 37.1 per cent of their revenue in grants to community groups and the Lotteries Commission said last week that it would give back 20.9 per cent of its record revenue in the past year.

But casinos do not have to give back a share of their proceeds.

Sky City returns 2.5 per cent of the net profits of its Auckland and Queenstown casinos and 1.5 per cent of the revenue of its Hamilton casino.