Death of Gary Van Duinen was recently reported by Fairfax Media. Duinen gambled at Dee Why RSL club on a regular basis.
According to Sydney Morning Herald, “Mr Van Duinen was dropped at a patch of suburban bushland by a taxi driver in the early hours of June 1 following a 13-hour pokies binge. His body was discovered six days later.”
Van Duinen is just one of many cases who loose on Pokies. According to Sydney Morning Herald, sighting country's most comprehensive statistics on gambling, an average of $1,256 per head of NSW population was spent on Pokies in 1999-2000. That’s a lot of money – mostly wasted, as very few win – almost all loose.
Dr Charles Livingstone, head of gambling research at Monash University's school of public health, said that for every person in the highest-problem category, another six people were affected through the effects of child neglect, domestic violence and other crime.
Dr Livingstone blames former NSW premier Bob Carr for the problem.
Mr Carr was asked about the impact of poker machines by an audience member at the launch of his memoir Run for Your Life on Tuesday night.
Bob Carr conveniently passed the blame to people he represented. "Not many people raised it, not many people wanted to express opposition," Mr Carr said.
"It’s open to the community to elect a government that will remove poker machines from clubs, hotels and the casino – that’s an option for the community," he said.
According to Sydney Morning Herald, “Former NSW premier Bob Carr … does not regret flooding the state's pubs with poker machines, but has acknowledged the social cost from what he describes as a "bargain with the devil".
"It's almost as if our community has done a bargain with the devil. We’re going to live with that small but stubborn level of dependency and — in the club movement especially — enjoy the expansion of leisure and facilities that are funded by poker machine usage.", said Bob Carr.
It's easy to blame someone else for the mistakes one make. Bob Carr did just that.
But elected leaders are given the responsibility of leading the community towards its betterment. Blaming the broader community for their failure to deliver that responsibility by politicians is not uncommon.
Gamling addiction is not much different to drug addiction. Lot of people try that at some point in their life. Some come out of it unharmed, others end with the similar fate as Gary Van Duinen.
Would Duinen be still alive if Pokies never existed – probably yes. Will many others have same fate as Duinen – yes.
