ROTORUA - The number of problem gamblers in Rotorua is overwhelming therapists.
Two counselling outlets that have opened in the city in the past 10 months report having "more than enough" clients to keep them busy.
The Compulsive Gambling Society in Auckland said the number of calls from Rotorua for help had
skyrocketed this year.
Poker machines were the biggest worry, accounting for about 60 per cent of problem gamblers.
The revelations came as a new grouping of community and church leaders and local government, known as the Gambling Reform Coalition, called for communities to have more say about gaming in their areas.
It said spending on gambling nationally had increased from $315 million a year in 1989 to $1.16 billion in 1999.
Department of Internal Affairs figures, the coalition said, showed that most of the increase stemmed from poker machines and casinos.
Dr Nelson Sucgang, executive director of the Rotorua Addiction Resource Centre, said the number of people who were receiving help was surprising since the gambling therapy service had started just last October.
An average of four people a week sought help from the centre for gambling-related problems, he said.
The Salvation Army-based clinic at the Community and Family Service in Rotorua opened a gambling addiction service in February.
The clinic's counsellor and therapist, Steve Scott, said that although problem-gambling sessions were held only once a week, about four new clients were enrolling every day.
There are 238 poker machines on 27 sites in Rotorua.
At least two more poker-machine bars are proposed in the city centre.
Although the maximum of poker machines allowed in one bar is 18, there are 70 machines in four bars within 50m of one another.
- NZPA
