Opinion: Pokies a waste of money

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Gambling is one thing that really riles me up.

It's just a total waste of money. More often than not you are going to lose money - especially playing pokies.

Yesteday we reported that Rotorua residents lost more than $20 million playing pokies in the year to June. That is unbelievable. To me that's $20m poured down the drain.

I don't understand why you would want to waste time and money playing pokies but those figures show it's obviously a serious problem for a lot of people.

And that's a real worry, especially when there are so many families already struggling to get by.

Problem Gambling Foundation's Eru Loach says gambling can contribute to financial stress, relationship issues, domestica violence and mental health issues - and his organisation is seeing an increase in the harm being caused by gambling.

Much of the money spent on pokies goes to community organisations and many groups
rely heavily on it but I believe they need to think hard about where that money comes from and if that is something they want to be supporting.

These community organisations do a great deal of good but, in my opinion, that does not outweigh the huge harm done by gambling addictions.

The only way we are going to see a real change is if we get rid of, or drastically reduce the
number of, pokie machines. For that to happen there needs to be a shift in the attitudes of community organisations, those who own the machines and the Government.

This is not an issue we can stay silent on.