“A profound social injustice”: Gambling victims playing a losing game
Alliance for Gambling Reform chief advocate Tim Costello spoke to the Eastern Melburnian about his disappointment with the lack of action so far and how he still holds out hope for change.
Matthew Sims
June 18, 2025
Alliance for Gambling Reform (AGR) chief advocate Tim Costello has been advocating for changes in the industry since 1995.
Thirty years later, he says the gambling industry he first fought against is an entirely different beast - one heavily entrenched in the advertising, sporting and entertainment industries.
Gambling’s impact on Melbourne and the eastern suburbs
In the 2023-24 financial year, Victorians lost more than $7.3 billion to different types of gambling, with more than $3 billion made up of losses on pokies.
According to data from the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission (VGCCC), Across the five LGAs of Knox, Maroondah, Manningham, Monash and Whitehorse, gamblers lost about $325.6 million via pokies across 3,299 machines.
According to a survey conducted by the State Government’s Justice and Community Safety department in 2023, Victorians spent on average $2,450 per year.
However, about 1.3 percent of the adults surveyed who gambled at pokie machines, casino tables and via sports betting companies spent more than $10,000 a year.
The “predatory” pokie machines targeting the poorest
One of the Alliance for Gambling Reform’s main targets focuses on pokies in pubs and clubs, with 75 percent of all the world’s pokies located in pubs and clubs in Australia.
“They’re all in the poorest postcodes,” he told the Eastern Melburnian.
“It’s a profound social injustice.”
Costello said the pokie machines were all designed to keep losses high and people losing for as long as possible.
“You get in front of a pokie machine and the lights and the sounds release the dopamine in the brain that hits the pleasure centre of the brain with the force of crack cocaine,” he said.
“It’s nonsense, in the nanosecond you pushed the button, you lost.
“You keep playing and you do far more damage.”
According to data from the VGCCC, in the eastern suburbs, Monash is the LGA with the highest amount of losses via pokies, with more than $10 million lost across 955 machines in 15 venues in April.
Other areas of high impact included Knox, with a total of about $6.2 million lost across 766 machines in 11 venues in April, and Maroondah - about $5.2 million lost across 640 machines in eight venues in April.
The effect gambling has on people of all ages – and their loved ones – is significant and far-reaching.
“I’ve done a number of funerals of people who out of shame and guilt took their lives,” said Costello.
“We know that our courts are clogged with people feeding their gambling addictions and stealing to keep playing.”
Costello also said families with a member who gambled were three times more at risk of domestic violence.
Normalising gambling from a young age
A recent report from the Australia Institute showed about 600,000 children aged between 12 and 17 had gambled illegally, while 85 per cent of 12-17 year-olds saw a gambling ad over the past month.
Costello said the gambling industry has been trying to reduce its perceived impact while appealing to kids by calling itself “the gaming industry”.
“We have been trying to completely close down games with loot boxes, which are for kids and are effectively a form of gambling, priming them, grooming them,” he said.
“This is an epidemic sweeping our teenagers.”
Pokie use limit trial “on ice”
Two separate Productivity Commission reports – in 1999 and 2010 – recommended “carded play” be introduced in the country, which would allow users to place a monetary cap on bets and a time-based stop on their play.
In 2021, the Royal Commission into Crown Casino resulted in the gambling giant having to introduce carded play, since showing a drop in losses.
The Victorian State Government has also planned for a trial of carded play across 40 venues for three months at some point this year, however no action to do so has been taken.
Costello said the Victorian Treasury relied on taxes from gambling to flow “well over a billion dollars” to Victoria. If carded play is introduced, the flow of that money will slow.
What’s the big picture?
Costello said all of this adds up to the AGR and those opposed to gambling harm playing a game with the odds stacked against them, a situation that often leaves him feeling “very discouraged” but not devoid of hope.
“The job of the State [Government] when they issue pokies licences is not revenue, it’s to protect people,” he said.
“The State, in handing out licenses and not introducing carded play, has profoundly failed its duty of care.
“I feel very disappointed with this State Government.”