Bree Hughes's poker machine problems cost her tens of thousands of dollars. It also cost her her freedom.
"I don't think that I would have been to prison if it wasn't for gambling,'' Ms Hughes told the ABC from her home in Melbourne's western suburbs.
There are eight pokies venues within five minutes' drive of her house, and she laments how readily available poker machines are in Melbourne's suburbs.
"You don't even realise what you're doing. Like what money you're spending, or whose money you're spending,'' Ms Hughes said.
"I'd wake up and I'd go straight to the pokies. It'd be nothing for me to go to four, five, six, seven venues in a day."
Ms Hughes is forthcoming with her story.
She wants others to know the damage Victoria's nearly 30,000 poker machines can do.
And like a growing chorus of councils, churches and anti-gambling advocates, she wants the Victorian government to follow the lead of Liberal governments in New South Wales and Tasmania to embark on pokies reform.
At the height of her problem, Ms Hughes would gamble for hours, the music and lights of the machines playing over and over in her head even when she went home.
She became so desperate for money she began to commit crimes — in 2020 she was sentenced to 10 months' prison for fraud offences.
"Given half the chance it [pokies] will suck you in and it will suck you dry and your family," Ms Hughes said.
"And you will do things that you never could have imagined that you would have ever been able to do, to continue to play."
The pokies sector says venues offer a range of options for problem gamblers including self-exclusion programs. All pokies in the state are equipped with YourPlay, a system that allows players to set a limit on how much they are willing to lose.
But the program is voluntary and has been criticised as being ineffective.
Ms Hughes said only once during her binges did a venue staff member point her to problem-gambling help.
"I've been a drug addict and the hold that gambling has had on me far surpasses drugs, ten-fold,'' she said.
Reforms across the nation
In NSW, Premier Dominic Perrottet has stared down the powerful pokies lobby and is promising that within five years all pokies will be cashless.
The trigger for dramatic action was a report from the state's crime commission that pokies are a haven for organised crime gangs' money-laundering operations.
Money laundering in pokies by organised crime also occurs south of the Murray, Victoria Police say.
In Tasmania, the government is introducing mandatory precommitment, a system which will force all punters to set daily loss limits of up to $100, monthly limits of up to $500 and annual limits of up to $5,000, which can only be set higher should the person have a proven capacity to afford it.
Mandatory pre-commitment was a condition of independent MP Andrew Wilkie's support of then-prime minister Julia Gillard in the hung parliament in 2010 — a deal Ms Gillard ultimately reneged on in the face of a concerted campaign from the powerful clubs lobby.
In Victoria, the heaviest pokies losses occur in the most disadvantaged areas — and local councils have had enough.
City of Hume Mayor Joseph Haweil, who is also a Labor party member, has led a campaign of seven like-minded councils calling on Premier Daniel Andrews to act.
Punters in Casey, Hume, Whittlesea, Wyndham, Dandenong, Monash and Darebin lost $663.5 million in 2021/22 out of the $2.24 billion lost on Victorian machines.
"We call upon the Victorian Government to seize upon the national momentum for progressive gambling reform to protect our communities and improve the lifetime wellbeing of all Victorians,'' the letter signed by the seven councils said.
The letter noted Mr Andrews and Mr Perrottet's close working relationship.
"The shift to cashless gambling appears to be inevitable, given the rapidly increasing move across the Australian economy from cash to digital transactions," the letter said.
"It is vital that legislative frameworks keep pace with this shift in such a way that harm from gambling is reduced, rather than exacerbated."
Mr Haweil said the industry had failed to provide proper protection for punters.
"This is the time to deliver on these commonsense reforms," he said.
"If we allow the industry to continue to self-regulate, what we're effectively doing is giving Dracula the keys to the blood bank."
Victoria's Treasury is expected to rake in more than $1.2 billion in poker machines taxes this year — and that's forecast to grow annually.
The premier hasn't completely ruled out reforms but has made no commitments. There is private support among Labor MPs, including some ministers, for Victoria to implement further reforms.
A spokeswoman for the government noted Victoria was the first state to introduce a voluntary pre-commitment system.
"We note the various motions moved by respective councils," she said.
"We will continue to monitor the arrangements for hotels and clubs across the state to ensure we have the appropriate regulatory settings and reserve the right to make further changes."
