Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Bridgette Thornley: Problem Gambling Foundation Clinical Director on the calls for tougher gambling regulations

Transcript

Bridgette Thornley: Problem Gambling Foundation Clinical Director on the calls for tougher gambling regulations · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: A new study is having to highlight just how hard
• 0:01
  Speaker 1: it is to kick kimbling. The researchers from the aut
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: shows a quarter of risky gamblers who try and cut
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: back on their habit end up relapsing, and three out
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: of four of those affected by our loved ones gambling
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: end up taking financial losses as a result. Someone who
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  Speaker 1: knows all about this is Bridget thorn Lee, who's from
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: the Problem Gambling Foundation and joins me, Now, how Bridget, so,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: how lovely? So how hard is it to kick a
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: gambling habit?
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  Speaker 2: Well, it can be hard, but also with a bit
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  Speaker 2: of supporter it can be quite simple as well. We
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: have a great tool around self exclusion which which is
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: part of the Gambling Act in New Zealand, which it
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: does allow people to ban themselves from venues that sort
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: of thing, and that can be great for people in it.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: And yeah, so it's about putting some concrete plans in
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: place for people so that they can, you know, quickly
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: make a change in their life.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Has it come harder and harder to kick a gambling
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: habit because the gambling's come into your homes. We've seen
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  Speaker 1: riss in online sports betting and casual betting sites around
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  Speaker 1: the place, like Polymarket. You don't have to go into
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: a tab or a casino. You can sit at home
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: and waste your money just like that. Is this making
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: gambling a bigger problem these days?
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: I think so, and a younger problem. We're seeing more
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: and more young people presenting to our service seeking help.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: It's great that they come in early. Yeah, So in
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: the past, you know, it might have been older people
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  Speaker 2: that might have been gambling for ten or fifteen years
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  Speaker 2: before they come and see us. So now we're seeing
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  Speaker 2: them a bit earlier, but they're definitely been introduced to gambling.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: Very young people on even children's apps for games are
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: getting introduced to gambling, and it's being normalized in a
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: way that people, you know, think gambling is just part
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: of the fun. Yeah, so we are seeing an increase
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: in online gambling.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: Can you say this, bridget None of this is news
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  Speaker 1: to me. We've been saying this for years and we
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: always talk about the problem, but we never solve the problem.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: So what are we doing wrong?
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  Speaker 2: I think we are solving some of the problem, but
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  Speaker 2: we need more regulation. These products aren't, you know, just
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: your ordinary product that you can go and have a
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: bit of fun on they're actually quite highly addictive things
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: like poking machines. You know, most people don't even go
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: near them. It's only about fifteen percent of the population
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: that would have a go on pokies, but of those
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: that play or gamble on them, it's fifty percent of
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: them experience harm. So they're really highly addictive products. And
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: as you said before, the ones that we're seeing online,
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: the marketing is quite predatory. You can you've probably seen
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: ads for you know, putting your money and now and
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: they'll double what you've put in that sort of thing.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: So those incentivizations, we need to remove those that ability.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: We need to remove gambling advertising from being in front
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  Speaker 2: of our children and young people.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of work to do. Get into it.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Bridget thrown me from the Problem
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Gambling Foundation. For more from earlier edition with Ryan Bridge,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: listen live to News Talks it'd be from five am weekdays,
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.