There is a significant relationship between spending on poker machines and crime in Victoria, a study commissioned by the state government has concluded. In potentially explosive findings, researchers say they have found "strong and robust" evidence of a link between spending on pokies and the incidence of "income-generating" crimes such as theft, robbery, fraud and handling stolen goods.
The findings, which have been quietly posted on the Department of Justice website, add weight to long-held assumptions about the incidence of problem gamblers turning to crime to feed their habits.
Using complex statistical methods to analyse police data from different geographic areas, the researchers sought to isolate the "poker-machine effect" from other influences on crimes, such as socio-economic and demographic characteristics of an area and the number of alcohol licences.
They concluded that only drug offences had a stronger link to crime than poker machines. The report by University of South Australia researchers, found evidence of a "positive and significant link between gaming expenditure and crime" in Victoria across three different years - 1996, 2001 and 2006. The report's lead author, Sarah Wheeler, said the link between pokies and crime was a causal one. "We are suggesting that the causal link runs from increased gaming to increased crime, rather than the other way round," Dr Wheeler said.
The report adds to anecdotal evidence from criminal cases on the impact of poker machines. In 2006, a County Court judge condemned the widespread availability of poker machines when jailing Kate Jamieson, a mother of two who stole more than $3.5 million from her bank employer to fund her addiction to poker machines. Judge Roland Williams questioned at the time "how a so-called civilised society can allow and offer the mindless operation of poker machines to witless members of the public under the euphemism of gaming and entertainment is no doubt a question for the sociologists of this world".
Charles Livingstone, of the Health Social Science Department at Monash University, said the findings of the researchers were damning. "We now know unequivocally that providing lots of poker machines adds not just all the layers of harm that we knew about - the money, the social problems - but it has also got a layer of crime that has now been well and truly documented," Dr Livingstone said.
The findings follow revelations in April this year that almost one in five suicidal patients seen by The Alfred hospital emergency department is a problem gambler. Rebecca Harrison, spokeswoman for Gaming Minister Tony Robinson, said the new report indicated the relationship between crime and gambling was complex. She said community views must also be given "special weight" by Victoria's gambling regulator when deciding on applications for new gaming venues.
News story courtesy of The Age -
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/pokies-link-to-jump-in-crime-20100722-10lfd.html
