“There are bells and lights. It's always positive. You look at the screens. Things are flashing. There are a number of reels rolling. You have losses disguised as wins. You have a design that means for every $100 you put in, over time you will pnly get back $85,” explains Warwick Harrison in an interview with the Western Plains App.

“Pokies become a happy place. You are always hoping something good will happen. That there will be a win…for people escaping a lot of difficulty and upset in their lives and pain, it becomes a place people just want to escape too. People who feel hopeless are especially vulnerable."

As problem gambling becomes a hot topic in the lead-up to the election, we take a look at the issue in our area. 

Warwick Harrison has spent a decade working as financial and gambling counsellor with Lifeline Central West. Harrison used to be a farmer and ag consultant, but decided to go into a more people-oriented helping profession. He retrained as a financial counsellor with Lifeline and soon he was asked to listen to people who were coming wanting help with their gambling problems.

He says that every problem gambler he sees has their own kind of unique way of first becoming addicted. But the constant is this - a neural pathway becomes set and whenever sadness or pain comes along it is medicated with feel good hormones associated with the game-playing and the prospect of winning.

“What you're not doing is dealing with those underlying issues that you want to escape from,” he says “Sometimes these are very deep seated issues related to trauma and neglect and that can get a long time to get through”.

Harrison told the Western Plains App that when sadness or grief hits someone and they try to carry-on without taking time to grieve they can have a sub-conscious drive to head to a “happy place”. Before they know it they can be addicted.

For example, he recently helped a woman whose husband’s health was deteriorating rapidly, an introduction to the machines in her late 60s and an addiction to this "happy place" ensued.

About 70% of his gambling clients are people addicted to pokie machines.

Gaming machines, highly addictive, designed by a team which includes mathematicians and psychologists, and sometimes deliver something of a jackpot, have become an election issue. 

It's partly because of their addictive nature and also because of a NSW Crime Commission report last year which showed money being laundered through poker machines across the state.

What we know about the Western Plains region is that $2.5 million profit for every six months is made from pokie machines just through the 85 machines in Bourke, Brewarrina and Bogan. Around $5 million profit for Cobar, Coonamble and Gilgandra combined.

NSW Opposition leader Chris Minns.

Cashless gaming cards will have a daily spending limit could be introduced if a Liberal Government is re-elected Premier Dominic Perrottet at the helm.

The premier wants to remove cash from poker machines as part of gambling reforms in the state - with an amount of between $1,000 and $1,500 being considered as the upper limit.

The policy has been widely and broadly supported including from The Greens, One Nation and the Animal Justice Party as well as from some Nationals MP. 

While RSL Australia has supported the move the RSL and Services Clubs Association has not.

Clubs NSW has launched a campaign, Gaming Reform the Right Way, inviting people to email their local MPs in opposition to the cashless card.

The Opposition has just announced its policy - a limit of $500; a tenfold reduction from the current limit of $5,000.

One stakeholder in Lightning Ridge told the Western Plains App nobody has yet thought of the “perfect policy” to deal with problem gambling, money laundering and people’s “right to privacy”.

“Well something had to be done. It’s the lower income people who are getting caught up in this," he said.

"There has to be some restriction. I know some people do just do it for fun, and cards would be an invasion of privacy. But after all the money laundering came to light we needed something.”

He said one of the insidious aspects he had seen in local problem pokie users was that they often come from lower-socio economic backgrounds.

"It's the people who can least afford who so often end up stuck in the addiction cycle".

It's a cycle says Phil Donnan regional director for the St Vincent De Paul Society North West region that means the worse problems are, the more you go to the dopamine fantasy land of pokie machines and the more you do that the worst finances drop, which makes you feel worse again and so you go back to the pokies, and the cycle can "destroy families and relationships".

"Look what we see with people who come to us seeking financial help is that they often feel like they have failed. So they have the stress and the shame of being poor, then they have the sense of being losers in society, losers in life. 

"Pokie machines and gambling addiction more generally gives people the sense of being winners. People in that position just wanna feel like they are winning again. Only its almost always a false feeling and their situation and sense of failure multiplies" he told the Western Plains App.

As for gambling counsellor Warwick Harrison, he will continue spending his days talking to people who want to change their lives and workout how they stop escaping into the world where a win never seems far away.

“I think as individuals we need to face up to the fact that we shouldn’t be happy all the time. There are a lot of difficult parts of life that are truly sad. If we acknowledge the sad times and with the help of our community live through them, we will be surprised by how much improvement there is to our health and enjoyment of life” he said,

“Once people admit their difficulty and seek help, they are often surprised to find that people admire them for doing that. Once they admit it, see what the underlying issues are, then there a number of strategies that can be put in place and great personal rewards in the journey ahead.

For More Help:

GambleAware Far and Western NSW: 1300 798 258 (local)

Lifeline Crisis Support: 13 11 14 – 24/7

GambleAware: 1800 858 858 – 24/7

National Debt Helpline: 1800 007 007