Kate Seselja was 18 years old when she first played a poker machine. The receptionist was in an RSL club in Sydney with her boyfriend, and as he gambled on one of the many pokies there she played a neighbouring machine on a whim of “why not?” Depositing $20, she hit the button and watched as the symbols on the reels matched up. In a stroke of beginner’s luck she had won $100. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, that was so easy!’” she recalls. By the end of the night, Kate was up nearly $1000. “A woman came over with a clipboard and the cash and gave it to me,” she tells marie claire. “It was an overwhelming experience. She said, ‘Wow, you’re so good at this!’”
For 12 years, Kate kept chasing the rush that came with the cash and the compliment, with devastating results. She ultimately lost $500,000 on the pokies, including $12,000 in one stint, which put her on the brink of suicide. She shares her story not as an industry-termed “problem gambler” but as a victim of an industry that wields an enormous amount of influence and power in Australia.
“The brutal reality is that many tens of thousands of Australians are addicted to gambling, in particular poker machines and online betting,” says independent federal
