Scott Eagar

Pre-commitment won’t fix the real problem – and as a former addict, I should know.

HI, I’M Scott Eagar and I’m a nobody, an everyday guy. I’m a roofer in the day and a boxing coach at night. I’m also an ex-poker machine addict. I used to be one of the people this government is supposedly trying to help.

The government and the independent Andrew Wilkie are finally trying to do something about the teachers, builders, nurses, pensioners, housewives, white and blue collar workers who are secretly but painfully addicted to the cash cow that is the dreaded poker machine. But they’re going about it the wrong way.

My suggestion to greatly reduce, if not solve, the poker machine addiction epidemic is simple – remove the ”feature”.

Every player sits down with their hard-earned cash, hoping to get it. It is our ”high”, our drug. I have spent hundreds of dollars in a single sitting waiting for the feature, sometimes winning only $20 or so for my toil. How stupid is that? But ask any pokie player and they’ve lived out that scenario over and over again, never learning their lesson.

There’s a battle going on in the minds of all pokie players in Australia right now: the hunger for the feature. It was introduced to do exactly this.

So why are we debating the introduction of a costly and problematic pre-commitment card? Why are they talking about a $1 maximum bet, which means you can still blow a week’s wages in a matter of hours?

Why are they talking about slowing the spins down, which means players will still blow everything they have; they’ll just take twice as long to do it?

Why are they talking about reducing the jackpot? You will still spend every cent hoping to win it, only to get half as much when you do. Why don’t politicians look at what makes pokies addictive in the first place, and remove it? No one is addicted until the first time they get the feature, and from there it’s a constant chase to get it again.

My suggestion is based on experience, anxiety, lost money, lost sleep, guilt, disgust, even tears. To prove it, I went to all my local pubs and clubs and asked five questions of pokie players. I was asked to leave four of these venues by staff.

I interviewed 202 players over four days. A lot of them initially said they only spent the occasional $20 note. Later they would tell me the truth. Many opened up. I saw the shame, anger, sadness, frustration, sense of loss and disillusionment in their eyes. I felt the same once. The survey results were not surprising, but emphatic – 84 per cent agreed that the feature was the most addictive component and the main reason they played; 90 per cent said they regularly felt like they were waiting for the feature during game play; 83 per cent said that removing the feature would make the machines less addictive. It was an amateur survey, but these were actual players, not grandmothers answering a phone survey because they had nothing better to do.

I forwarded my results to Andrew Wilkie’s assistant. I got a response that said they were interesting, ”but don’t hold your breath for a response from Andrew as he’s a busy guy”.

I rang Community Services Minister Jenny Macklin’s office twice. Her assistant was also interested in my results but no one got back to me.

I tried my local member. No reply. What about Senator Nick Xenophon’s office? Nope.

When my children grow up, I don’t want them pre-committing to bet a certain amount; I want them to play less addictive machines, or none at all.

The feature is to a poker machine what caffeine is to coffee. But instead of removing the caffeine, the politicians are debating how much milk to add, or whether the coffee should be served in a mug or a cup.

Open your eyes and you will see that addiction and over-spending on poker machines is at epidemic proportions in Australia. Go to any pub or club and talk to people long enough and you’ll get the real story. You won’t get it from a phone survey. Most addicts won’t tell their spouses or loved ones of their problem, let alone the government or a stranger who rings at dinner time.

The answer is the removal of the addictive ”feature”.

Scott Eagar is preparing a submission to the parliamentary joint select committee on gambling reform.