It was shortly after the Gippsland woman Libby Mitchell spent 52 hours inside a dark room full of brightly lit poker machines that she realised she was in the grip of a “made-in-hell addiction”. For many years, Mitchell drove home after a marathon session on the pokies with less than a dollar left in her account.
Her addiction became so bad she contemplated suicide and checked herself into hospital. Eventually she moved to Western Australia, where there are no pokies in community clubs. She needed an escape.
