TEENS glued to computers playing online poker for hours on end have youth workers worried that bad gambling habits could be on the cards.
With research revealing higher rates for at-risk gambling among young people, an increase in the popularity of poker, sports betting and online gambling, Responsible Gambling Awareness Week will this year be geared towards better youth education.
Citymission gambling prevention worker Talia Okten is hosting a gambling awareness education forum, ‘Knowing the facts’, on Friday for young African men living in Melbourne’s west.
She said the program was prompted by a growing concern about many of the 50 young men she worked with, aged 15-25, spending entire days on social networking sites playing mock poker.
“Even if they’re not actually using real money, some kids can spend a whole day in front of the computer, which is a worrying trend.
“Most of the boys who come in are unemployed or aren’t in school, but when they do get jobs and have money these habits could lead to a real gambling problem.”
Swinburne University gambling research fellow Anna Thomas, who has studied Victorian gambling habits, said those living in disadvantaged areas across the western suburbs were at a greater risk of developing gambling habits.
“Some of the reasons people might gamble is to escape from their problems, and for people in areas like these with social disadvantages, it might be about the elusive dream of winning and getting out of the problems you’re in.”
A new study has shown that punters in the inner west are feeling the pinch of pokies losses more than anywhere else in Victoria, gambling away up to a quarter [for inner west] and up to 12 per cent [for outer west] of their median income.
In the federal seat of Lalor, which takes in Wyndham, Melton and parts of Hobsons Bay, an estimated 23,835 pokies users lost about $3750 each in the past financial year, a UnitingCare study says.
