Nowhere in the world has more pokies per person than Australia. Their victims fill our jails, mental health facilities and morgues, and women are especially vulnerable. LIGHTS, MUSIC, ADDICTION
Kate Seselja is impeccably groomed and happily married. Family photos line the walls of her beautiful home with views over Canberra wine country and she receives requests from around the world to speak or run workshops. It’s a far cry from nine years ago when Kate sat, mute with shock, contemplating suicide after another catastrophic pokies loss. “Only the fact I was pregnant and couldn’t think how to do it without hurting my baby stopped me,” she says. “It was my darkest day.”
Kate began casually gambling on the pokies in her teens, to be with her boyfriend, and almost immediately won $1000. “I thought: ‘Wow! That was easy. Why would anyone do anything else?’” she recalls. “I went from playing with him to playing alone quite quickly.”
Her peers went on holidays or bought cars. Kate used her $15-an-hour waitressing money to gamble, encouraged by staff who handed over her winnings in cash so she could lose them again. She had a brief respite when she met husband Phil, married and moved from Sydney to Canberra. However, after her second child, her mothers’ group suggested meeting at a club. “I heard the sound of the pokies and it triggered how I felt when I won. I was sure I’d be more in control this time ... ”
Extensive research has shown that, while men gamble to beat the odds, test their skills and outperform others, women
