Prior to poker machines becoming legal in hotels there were card machines that you could gamble on. They only took 20 cent pieces and the maximum jackpot was $500. This is a rare piece of Australian gambling and pub culture, as well as, a great slice of social history.

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Updated April 26, 2020 20:17:21

The coronavirus pandemic has had a devastating impact on so many Australians.

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Lives have been lost, jobs and businesses have been wiped out, and individuals have had to come to grips with being isolated from family and friends.

No industry has felt the strain more than pubs, clubs and casinos. From March 23, they had to close their doors at short notice, throwing the lives and livelihoods of tens of thousands of Australians into turmoil.

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But for some Australians these closures have proved a blessing rather than a curse.

The Alliance for Gambling Reform says more than $1 billion has been saved in poker machine losses in the past five weeks.

ABC Investigations has been in contact with hundreds of people affected by problem gambling, and we asked whether coronavirus shutdowns have changed gambling habits.

Many of them have described the past five weeks as one of the most peaceful periods they can remember.

Here are three of their stories.

The mineworker

Corey* is a mineworker from Queensland. He knows too well the pain that a gambling addiction can cause.

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His father lost the family home through betting on the horses when Corey was a small boy.

'All these years later, it still causes fights in my family,' he said.

'Knowing my family history, I became a staunch anti-gambler. I'd never even bet on the horses.'

The 29-year-old avoided the issues his father had. Until July last year.

'My father got diagnosed with a form of dementia and I went into a dark place. I started drinking heavily and began to play the pokies.'

The Queenslander had been working hard as a fly-in fly-out mine worker and was saving for a home.

Within two months of taking up the pokies his $25,000 deposit was gone.

'I'd wake up at 10:00am, go to a pub or club, and play the pokies, sometimes until 3:00am.'

He would repeat this pattern during his week off in the city, before flying back to a mining camp to work for two weeks.

After another two months, he sold his prized 4WD for $17,000 to feed his new habit.

Soon that cash windfall was gone. With no money in the bank, and nothing else to sell, he started borrowing money.

By the time the lockdown started Corey owed the banks and same-day lenders close to $20,000.

'COVID-19 has been a blessing for me, with pubs, clubs and casinos closed, I've been completely unable to play the pokies at all,' he said.

He's now putting aside 80 per cent of his income to pay off his loans and feels that he has his gambling under control.

'Since the lockdown started, I created an online gambling account and put $100 into it. I lost that $100 straight away, so I haven't put any money back into it since,' Corey said.

'I'm hoping this is the end of my eight-month gambling habit. It's cost me so much, from my health and happiness, to pushing away friends for the sake of gambling — it's really impacted me on every level and set me way back financially.'

The mother

For Sonia, the 58-year-old mother of a pokies addict, the lockdown has been one of the best months of her life.

'It has been a blessing for me and my son because he's suddenly not being tricked, deceived and robbed by the poker machines,' she said.

Sonia's son John* has twice attempted suicide in relation to his gambling addiction.

'We are both experiencing a peace we haven't experienced for over a decade. I'm able to live each day without the constant fear that my son will try to take his life again.'

'He told me that God's answered his prayers with the lockdown, that a heavy weight has been lifted off him and that he feels like he has been set free.'

The 28-year-old has MS and is on disability pension. Sonia says at around 2:00am on a Saturday he goes to a local Sydney pub or club knowing his pension will be in his bank account by then.

'By the time the sun comes up he's lucky if there's anything left in his account,' Sonia said.

Once John blows all his money, Sonia has to make the most awful choice. Does she give him more money to help him get through the week knowing he will probably put it through the pokies?

Invariably she gives in.

'People ask why I give him money. It's because I'm scared that he might commit a crime to pay for his habit,' she said.

'You have to realise the habit overrules normal thinking. Do you know how many people are in jail because of a pokie addiction? I'm scared he could end up in jail.'

Sonia says she's on the verge of losing her house and has borrowed tens of thousands of dollars from the banks and from family to pay for her son's habit.

She says John has self-excluded from hundreds of venues, but they continue to let him in to gamble away his pension and his mother's money.

Sonia says she has used the lockdown to pay back money she's borrowed.

'In the past five weeks I haven't had to give him money. But it's so much more than the money, it's the emotional rollercoaster as well.'

Australia has the highest gambling losses per head of population in the world. Sonia hopes the lockdown will lead to a rethink on poker machine policy.

Over the past 25 years, she has held a number of senior positions in the manufacturing industry, and says that the absence of poker machines is not just good for the families of addicts, but for small business as well.

'Over $6.5 billion is lost to poker machines each year in NSW alone. If this money was spent in small business the economy would thrive and many jobs would be generated.'

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Please fill out the ABC Investigations gambling story tips form, or text message the team via the WhatsApp or Signal mobile apps on 0418 347 462.

The small businessman

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Andrew runs a small business in rural Queensland.

Much of his work is done on the road, and when he drives into a new town, he finds it difficult not to pass the local pub.

'If I'm driving for work, something in me gets triggered and I will drop into the pub and start putting money through the pokies,' he said.

The businessman finds himself being drawn to something he hates.

'I can't stand the pokies. But I started playing them 20 years ago when I was struggling with anxiety.'

Andrew suffered trauma as a child that led to anxiety in adulthood. In his late teens he started drinking, then playing the pokies, as he tried to deal with his past experiences.

'It terrifies me to think how much I have lost. Outside my food, my rent and my phone bills, I was probably putting around 60 per cent of my income through the machines.'

He says in the past month he's felt more at ease than any other time in the past two decades.

'This isolation has been an absolute godsend. Prior to the pandemic I was still visiting pokie rooms two or three times a week, but in the past five weeks I haven't even thought about pokie machines,' Andrew said.

'Prior to this, my anxiety levels were up and down constantly. Now, I'm so much more relaxed and less anxious.

'Today I had a beer and put $20 on the horses on my phone and I was content with that. Before I could pour $3,000 into the pokies in a couple of hours.'

Andrew is worried about what might happen when the pubs and clubs reopen.

'I do have concerns about what happens down the track, but my hope is that my time away from the pokies has given me strength and gets me to see what life is like without them.'

*Not their real names

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Topics:gambling, clubs-and-associations, hospitality, covid-19, australia, sydney-2000, qld

First posted April 26, 2020 04:47:10