A new study has found 4 per cent of suicides in Victoria between 2009 and 2016 were gambling-related.
A landmark independent study released last week by Federation University senior research fellow Angela Rintoul and the Victorian Coroner’s Court has found at least 4 per cent of Victoria’s suicides between 2009 and 2016 were related to problem gambling.
Researchers say Jake’s death is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to gambling-linked suicide because people suffering from the addiction often keep it a secret.
Victoria is now becoming the strictest state in Australia for gaming regulation.
But gambling addict and anti-gaming advocate Ben Hamilton told the ABC that in other states, such as New South Wales, a lot needed to be done.
Mr Hamilton believes a digitised national self-exclusion register for poker machines may help because self-exclusion is not legally mandated within venues.
This year a federally funded national exclusion register for online gambling called Bet Stop was introduced.
Online gambling on apps and websites started in 2008.
But despite poker machines being introduced in New South Wales in the 1950s and in Victoria in the early 1990s, tools and regulations to help problem gamblers stop are a long way behind.
Mr Hamilton has accompanied many of his peers to self-exclude in venues, only to hear from their family members that they have been allowed to gamble the following day.
Dr Rintoul and her colleagues are now calling on state and federal governments to set up a taskforce to prevent gambling-related suicides, following recommendations handed down in June by the federal government’s inquiry into online gambling and its impacts.
The recommendations included a total ban on gambling advertising, and restricting incentives for pokies venues to draw families in, such as cheap meals and other promotions.
In June, the Victorian government announced reforms requiring carded play with pre-commitment limits and caps of $100 to be spent on a machine at a time, down from $1,000.
Gaming venues will also be made to close for at least six hours a day.
But Dr Rintoul is concerned that no clear timeline being given for the reforms to be implemented may result in the industry watering protective measures down.
(ABC)
