Boredom cited as one of the major reasons Greek Australians take up gambling.
“If there’s a couple of dollars being played and bragging rights, there’s no harm, but having lived in a Greek village for 11 years in the 80s, I have heard many horror stories like people losing houses over a game of thanasi,” says Australian Greek Welfare Society’s Dimitri Bouras.
He has seen the dangers of gambling first hand in the Greek community in Australia and says it is very easy for people to become addicted.
In Australia, you’ll see a group of older Greek men playing cards in almost ever suburban café or pub. It’s a familiar sight, so familiar in fact that many are desensitised to it.
It’s seen as a social game, something for entertainment, but a simple punt can turn into a full fledged problem, especially if gambling becomes a way to fight boredom.
Research shows that Greeks continue to gamble despitesustaining losses because they feel the social rewards are more important.
The study conducted by the Victorian Commonwealth Gaming Association, mentioned boredom and loneliness was a major contributor to why Greeks pick up and sustain gambling.
36 per cent of 664 Greek, Chinese, Vietnamese and Arabic-speaking Victorians participants in the 2000 study cited that boredom and loneliness was the main reason they gambled.
The fact that people are less likely to stop when they incur losses shows the power that peer pressure and the fear of being left out can be. Case worker Dimitri Bouras blames senior citizen clubs for promoting this kind of behaviour and turning a blind eye to problem gamblers.
“I think the main issue is boredom,” he tells Neos Kosmos.
“If a person is on a pension with all the time in the world, especially if you haven’t had the time to develop interests, the easy way out is gambling.
“A lot of senior citizen clubs are accountable for this.”
He remembers in the 90s and early 00s when senior citizen clubs used to pick up elderly Greeks and bus them to a TAB, offering them cheap lunches. The social ‘event’ would end up with throngs of Greeks sitting at 5c pokies machines playing for most of the day.
The social aspect can easily mask a bigger problem.
Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria executive director and Responsible Gambling Awareness Week spokesperson, Ross Barnett says the Greek community suffers from a lack of awareness about the problems of gambling.
“It can become a problem when it starts to become an obsession,” he tells Neos Kosmos.
“When it takes over your life and it’s a key thing in your life, and it starts to affect your relationships, job or career or your financial viability.”
Mr Bouras agrees and says more should be done to target small scale gambling.
“Even small scale gambling, when the ego takes over, can turn into something a lot bigger,” he says.
“It’s a slippery slope.”
The fact that gambling is seen in the Greek community as entertainment makes those that are struggling with a gambling addiction not willing to seek help.
They are embarrassed, and the stigma of being financially unstable thanks to their gambling has many people fearing for their reputation if they are seen to be seeking help.
“There’s a stigma attached, the Greek community is very close knit and the “what are people going to say?” issue which acts a veil for many other issues including gambling,” Mr Bouras says.
“That alone is the biggest hurdle, of preventing a person coming forward in order to seek some help.”
In his time at the AGWS, Mr Bouras has only dealt with a handful of cases, and says he gets more people coming through for help with drug or alcohol related problems showing that many are keeping their gambling problems to themselves.
Gambling is a very hidden and isolated problem for an individual and means many don’t seek the help they need until it’s very late.
“They find drugs and alcohol more embarrassing, there’s more help, and the other issue is, ice, methamphetamines, means the son might break into the house and destroy everything just to get $50 and that’s what pushes parents to become more proactive in seeking help,” he says.
“With gambling it’s more of a quiet issue.”
It’s not just Greek pensioners coming for help for their gambling addictions, currently the trend is showing that many young people are succumbing to dangerous levels of gambling, mostly thanks to the digital age.
Online gambling is available 24/7 and with the ability to make a punt via phones and at work promotes a more addictive gambling habit.
The highest rates of problem gambling is now centred in the 18 to 24 age group and has a lot to do with targeted advertising and the abundance of online betting companies.
In his time at the AGWS, Mr Bouras has dealt with many parents coming forward seeing help for their children’s gambling problems.
All the cases he has worked on have been so desperate Mr Bouras says that houses were in the process of being mortgaged.
The link between gambling and elder abuse is something many people don’t immediately see.
“Financial abuse among the Greek community imposed especially by second generation Greeks to first generation Greeks is a very very prevalent issue,” he says.
“It’s kept under a veil of secrecy, but more and more issues are coming forward.”
The AGWS offers short term counselling on gambling issues and elder abuse, they will let people know of their rights and then refer people onto gamblers help and other addiction help.
The Greek community is one of four ethnic communities that have higher rates of problem gambling in Australia.
They join the Chinese, Vietnamese and Arabic communities with high rates of problem gambling.
At the moment, there is no culturally appropriate help provided to people from an ethnic background at the responsible gambling foundations of Australia.
It’s something the foundations are aware of and are working hard at making services available to non-English speaking Australians.
The Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation CEO Sergio Sardo says they will be launching services very soon to cater to this need.
“We are launching a greater variety of help services for ethnic communities,” he tells Neos Kosmos.
“We hope that the message cuts through, now more so than ever.”
The Foundation has been urged by the ECCV to change its media campaign to better accommodate ethnic communities.
“We are encouraging the Victorian responsible gambling foundation to make sure it changes it media and promotion tactics to ensure that those messages are getting out to the community and also the Greek community in ways that they are going to be understood,” Mr Barnet says.
Responsible Gambling Awareness Week is held in May each year to raise awareness of the importance of gambling responsibly.
source: Neos Kosmos
STUDIO 3 NEWCASTLE AUSTRALIA 