At least 1110 Canberrans are losing more than $10,000 a year on gambling, most of it on poker machines, new research has found.
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Another 21,000 adults are losing between $1000 and $10,000, the research, from the Australian National University's Centre for Gambling Research, found. They represent about 8 per cent of the adult population.
The centre's director, Bryan Rodgers, said the figures were self-reported by gamblers and would significantly under-estimate the actual amount spent – with gamblers' estimates only accounting for about half the money made by poker machines.
Professor Rodgers appeared before an inquiry into Canberra's clubs on Monday, where he said while everyone was "getting a bit excited" by the dangers of online and sports betting, the bulk of the problem in Australia was with poker machines. That didn't mean poker machines were the cause of problem gambling, nor that people were only gambling on poker machines, but most problem gamblers used poker machines, including more than 1000 people with a serious problem in Canberra.
They were visible and known to people in venues, but "as a society we all run away from it", he said.
Professor Rodgers' team at the ANU surveyed almost 7100 Canberrans late last year and early this year, providing the first update on gambling in the territory since 2009.
They found that overall, fewer people were gambling than in the last survey and overall spending was down 19 per cent. The proportion of adults reporting harm had also fallen by 2 percentage points to 5.4 per cent.
No change in problem or moderate risk gambling was detected between 2009 and now.
Professor Rodgers said the level of problem gambling in Canberra was 0.4 per cent – about one in 200 adults. In 2009 it was 0.5 per cent but the change was within the margin of error, so not significant. Another 1.1 per cent of adults were moderate risk problem gamblers.
Of those who identified as moderate risk problem gamblers, more than three-quarters of them played poker machines, In 2009, the figure was over 90 per cent.
Relationships Australia, which has the government contract for counselling problem gamblers, also gave evidence on Monday, saying over the 12 months since it had had the contract, 166 gamblers had asked for help. ABout half were driven to seek help because of financial issues, and another 20 per cent because family relationships were suffering.
Problem gambling was a pervasive issue that went beyond the gambler to the family, friends and workplaces of gamblers, ACT manager Juleen Schiefelbein said.
Fifty-four per cent of people seeking help nominated poker machines as their preferred method of gambling.
Gaming Minister Joy Burch said the figures were "very encouraging". Canberra had some of the strongest harm minimisation measures in the country.
She also pointed to the increase in online gambling.
"There is a growing issue with online gambling. You go into a racecourse, you go into a community club you're surrounded by people, there are people there that if you display a level of need they can tap you on the shoulder and point you in the right direction," she said. "But online gambling, anyone with a smart device, a smart phone sitting on the bus, or a phone by themselves at 3 o'clock in the morning, can expose themselves to their gambling problems and I think that is a real risk."
The trading scheme allowing clubs to buy and sell poker machines between them for the first time would begin at the end of the month, she said.