It is 22 years to the day since Maria felt the familiar rush of dopamine after feeding her last $50 bill into a poker machine.<\/p>\n
What started as a frivolous 20-cent flutteron the Sunday raffles quickly developed into a dangerous addiction one that would end before a magistrate.<\/p>\n
\"That was probably the beginning of the start of my real life,\" the Newcastle resident, now in her 60s, reflected.<\/p>\n
\"Most compulsive gamblers don't recognise the depth of what they're doing until they hit rock bottom.\"<\/p>\n
Maria, whose surname the ABC has chosen not to use, said heraddiction intensified after her husband suffered a work-related accident and she became the sole breadwinner.<\/p>\n
\"Then came the day I won something big. The first big win is usually how it starts,\" she said.<\/p>\n
\"You don't equate the numbers on the screen to the dollars in your hand until you run out.\"<\/p>\n
Maria turned to \"white-collar crime\" to sustain her addiction.<\/p>\n
\"I knew what I was doing wasn't good but just couldn't stop,\" she said.<\/p>\n
Confessing to her husband was \"an unbelievably horrendous day\".<\/p>\n
\"When it came to the court case, I was ready to say, 'take me away' because I felt I deserved it,\" she said.<\/p>\n
\"But the judge said to my solicitor, 'Aren't you going to bring up her illness?'<\/p>\n
\"I could well have gone to jail but I didn't. Because the judge recognised that I had a problem.\"<\/p>\n
Maria vividly remembers the day her husband dropped her at her first Gamblers Anonymous meeting.<\/p>\n
\"I went through a whole box of tissues, probably broke the hand of the lovely little lady who was sitting next to me.<\/p>\n
\"When [my husband] picked me up, he said, 'How was it?'<\/p>\n
\"All I remember saying was, 'I'm not alone.'\"<\/p>\n
It is a feeling she now channels into her work to help others struggling with gambling addiction.<\/p>\n
\"The mind of a compulsive gambler is no different to someone who's addicted to substance abuse.<\/p>\n
\"It's such a soul-destroying addiction.\"<\/p>\n
According to experts, Maria's situation iscommon.<\/p>\n
Associate Professor Charles Livingstone is a gambling researcher at Monash University.<\/p>\n
He said, in NSW, the ratio of people to poker machines was88 to one.<\/p>\n
\"It's not as high as Nevada but it's probably about the second or third-highest-rated poker machine per capita in the western world.\"<\/p>\n
He said, last year, NSW residents spent more than $7.5 billion on poker machines.<\/p>\n
\"NSW is clearly the throbbing heart of Australia's gambling business,\" he said.<\/p>\n
A pilot project is currently underway in the NSW Hunter region to reduce gambling risk.<\/p>\n
The cashless gaming trial started at Wests New Lambton in Newcastle in October last year.<\/p>\n
Participants are able to set limits over a number of parameters, including session length and amount spent.<\/p>\n
The trial is expected to finish later this year with a report to be prepared for the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority.<\/p>\n
Professor Livingstone said, if successful, people would need to be convinced to use the technology.<\/p>\n
\"You've got to persuade people to use this system; it's certainly the best solution that's been developed so far,\" he said.<\/p>\n
While Maria saidit wasnot the whole answer, she saidanything that could \"slow down\" an addiction was a step in the right direction.<\/p>\n
\"At least with somethinglike that, you can gain some sort of control,\" she said.<\/p>\n
\"I know that if I hadn't been able to accelerate the way I did, I think the outcome would have been different.\"<\/p>\n
Get local stories told by the people who are living them with the Newcastle Hunter Catch Up podcast.<\/p>\n
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Read more: <\/p>\n
Reformed NSW gambler helping others recover from addiction to poker machines - ABC News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It is 22 years to the day since Maria felt the familiar rush of dopamine after feeding her last $50 bill into a poker machine. What started as a frivolous 20-cent flutteron the Sunday raffles quickly developed into a dangerous addiction one that would end before a magistrate Continue reading