Christmas stress pushes women to play pokies

Women tend to gamble to numb themselves. Picture / Martin Sykes

Some women pour themselves a hot bath or go for a stroll to relieve the everyday stresses of life but others stare blankly at a pokie machine, feeding it desperately with precious coins.

An estimated 50,000 New Zealanders - half of them women - suffer from severe problem gambling, according to Gambling Helpline chief executive Krista Ferguson.

"Studies show women tend to gamble to numb themselves rather than necessarily win," she said.

"With pokie machines you can go into a trancelike state - you can escape from all that stress of Christmas for a little while."

Ms Ferguson said that gamblers emptied their pockets of $2 billion last year and Gambling Helpline staff were gearing up for the aftermath of the financial strain of Christmas.

"In January and February new calls increase as people become concerned that their financial situation has spiralled out of control over the holiday season.

"In past years we have seen new calls to the helpline increase by as much as one-third over the holiday period."

But the helpline reaches only 10 per cent of the problem - "90 per cent aren't coming forward for help and that's just the people gambling and not the family members".

Ms Ferguson said for every problem gambler, seven of their family or friends were also affected.

She said partners often had to share the gambling-related debt - joint credit cards or the mortgage to finance the habit. "Family members don't necessarily think support services are there for them."

For 80 per cent of people calling the helpline, it was the pokies in the bars and pubs that tempted them most.

Ten per cent visited the six casinos throughout the country and the remainder were TAB or lottery punters.

"Pokies are just everywhere out there in the community. They're open all hours and there's more than one choice [of machine]," Ms Ferguson said.

According to the Ministry of Health website, the number of pokie machines has tripled in the past 10 years.

There were 7770 pokies in 1994, jumping to 22,734 by 2003.

Ms Ferguson said the good news was since the smoking ban was introduced in December 2004, the number of people calling in for help had decreased.

Ms Ferguson said when people called they needed more than just a person to listen to them - they needed practical strategies to help them beat their addiction.

Making the call was the first step for people, she said.

"We establish ways that they might be able to, for the first time, talk to their family about the problem. [We] give them help in terms of gambling debt - they've got creditors at their doors."

She said they were often dealing with suicidal people.

"We want to encourage people who are worried about themselves or the potential problem gambling of someone close to them to call the Gambling Helpline."

The helpline (0800 654-655) is open seven days a week.

- NZPA