Losses were particularly high in regional areas, with the combined Mount Gambier and Grant local government areas losing $24 million, about $720 per person.<\/p>\n
Ms Healey, 42, described the pokies as her “kryptonite” and estimated she lost thousands of dollars gambling to escape the pressures of being a single parent to a child with a disability and her own mental health issues.<\/p>\n
She always gambled on payday. \u00a0<\/p>\n
The important bills would get paid, but she would “just blow” the rest and when she was on a winning streak she would “be in there more often than not”.<\/p>\n
Her addiction quickly became a “perpetual cycle” of borrowing money from family and friends and “robbing Peter to pay Paul”.<\/p>\n
“I would then have to worry about how I was going to feed myself and my child and get to the next pay,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
she said.<\/p>\n
It was only after she won and lost $2,000 in one day that Ms Healey realised things had to change.<\/p>\n
“[I felt] devastated and really disappointed with myself that I could do that. And that was the problem, I couldn’t stop myself,” she said.<\/p>\n
![\"Electronic](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/82ba51780b947f656915b4b70c1684e6\")
<\/p>\n
Recent data shows poker machine losses in South Australian have risen by $53 million from the previous 12 months. (Pixabay)<\/p>\n
More funds needed<\/p>\n
Project officer of the Gambling Help Service with Lifeline South East Louise Murphy said the amount of time people could spend gambling was a concern.<\/p>\n
“Over 20 hours a day, our venues are open in Mount Gambier, so people experiencing gambling harm don’t get to have much of a break,” she said.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/565154912fdb419b0e8dde5c625cf5e4\")
<\/p>\n
Louise Murphy wants more of the government gambling profits to go to harm reduction. (ABC South East SA: Josh Brine)<\/p>\n
The Greens recently called on the SA government to phase out all pokies by 2030.<\/p>\n
Ms Murphy thought it would be difficult for governments to turn away from the revenue pokies brought in.<\/p>\n
But she wanted more of that money to be spent on services to help people facing addiction.<\/p>\n
An auditor general report from 2023 showed just one per cent \u2014 $5.38 million \u2014 of all gambling revenue received by the state government went back into the Gamblers Rehabilitation Fund.<\/p>\n
“Indexing what they spend on harm to the revenue raised on gambling would be really helpful for service providers,” Ms Murphy said.<\/p>\n
Consumer and Business Affairs Minister Andrea Michaels said rather than banning gaming machines, the focus was on “supporting those who experience gambling-related harm” and reducing the number of machines in the state.<\/p>\n
The minister did not comment on the Gamblers Rehabilitation Fund.<\/p>\n
‘Massive problem’<\/p>\n
Ms Healey eventually found help with her addiction through Lifeline and now works with the service to help others.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/bc96c2d89e52e0a09922da7eb4c37962\")
<\/p>\n
Bec Healy wants to see the state government take a “moral” stand on gambling harm. (ABC South East SA: Josh Brine)<\/p>\n
She said it would be “moral” to ban pokies outright and wants to see more done to help people experiencing addiction.<\/p>\n
“To think large amounts of money like that are going through those machines, it’s pretty devastating,” she said.<\/p>\n
“How many other people are in the position I was in?<\/p>\n
“It’s a massive problem \u2026 I think more could be put back into helping.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bec Healey loved the atmosphere of the gaming rooms. The flashing lights, the chimes and the bells of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":213999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[117040,117038,117042,7865,210,117039,517,117037,117041,28466,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-213998","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-andrea-michaels","9":"tag-gamblers-rehabilitation-fund","10":"tag-gambling-revenue","11":"tag-gaming-addiction","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-lifeline-south-east","14":"tag-mental-health","15":"tag-mount-gambier","16":"tag-pokies-addiction","17":"tag-problem-gambling","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115176820320047328","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}