Gambling: a woman’s tale

Lynne, who is in her early 60s, had to confront a reality she had carefully concealed from her husband for decades: she was a compulsive gambler who had literally lost the house through an obsession of feeding coins into poker machines.

The Sunshine Coast later this month hosts the 40th national Gamblers Anonymous (GA) conference. For the first time, doctors, counsellors and gaming venue managers have been invited to attend to learn about the support GA gives when an invisible line has been crossed, turning a flutter into an addiction.

This outreach comes amid mounting evidence that more older Australians are either succumbing to compulsive gambling directly or being skimmed of their money by family.

Relationships Australia Queensland, which runs the state’s gambling help service, assisted nearly 5000 people in 2017-18. While most were young men, typically drawn to online gambling, the organisation’s statistics show an increasing number of women over 50 seeking help due to gambling, chiefly pokies.

Ahead of the conference, Lynne shared her story with The Senior  to let others know they were not alone and support was available.

She began using pokies recreationally soon after they came to Queensland in 1992. Use increased as she sought to “escape” bullying and stress from her senior public service job.

In the five years leading up to the knock on the door in 2014, gambling became her “everything”.

“I had used up savings, maxed the credit cards, spent pay cheques, hocked things around the house I didn’t think would be noticed missing, taken out six payday loans and stopped making the mortgage repayments,” she said.

“I hid what was happening. Absences from home were due to work or catch-ups with old friends... I had become a scammer, a liar, deceptive, a cheat. I was not a person I had ever wanted to be.”

Another woman, “Sarah”, told of feeding $250,000 into pokies in a four-year gambling frenzy; $100,000 belonged to her mother.

“I was Mum’s guardian: she couldn’t look after her affairs and I had always been ‘responsible’,” she said, 13 years after “coming clean”.

“When my gambling got out of control, I would take amounts from Mum’s account. As soon as the first coin went into a machine, that money was effectively laundered.”

Both women sought support from GA. They have worked to repay money – and family trust  – lost, and continue to attend GA meetings.