When the Solution is Your Problem

Tom Andrews (he/him)

In Ian Mune’s 1985 New Zealand film centred around illegal gambling exploits, Came a Hot Friday, the opening scene features a song with the line “The wheel of fortune’s going to spin for me, this time”. It’s always going to be this time, or this time, or this time. Later in the film a bloke at a casino table says:

“If you’re going to gamble, you’ve got to be prepared to accept your losses” —a sad reality not even I can acknowledge.”

Young people in their late teens and early 20s have been gambling for all of human history. A sense of financial independence and the dream of getting rich quick has drawn people in this age bracket to get into pyramid schemes, cryptocurrency, and the all-beloved pokie machine.

The one I’ve fallen into is sports and racing gambling through the Totalisator Agency Board (TAB).

It’s fun, it’s taboo, it’s addictive. I can attest to this as someone who’s been up past midnight, betting on teams I’ve never heard of, in the hopes that I could turn the last $2 in my account into $10. In reality, a Scottish football team has no interest in turning my money around for me, and just like that Aberdeen FC becomes my least favourite sports team for that week. That’s until I load another $20 in the account and blow it all thinking that it was finally going to be the time that the Wallabies would win the Bledisloe Cup and my $10 bet would turn into $86.

The three factors of gambiling being consideration (an amount wagered), risk (chance), and a prize, so my first experiences stem back to buying Weet-Bix for Stat-Attack cards in the hope of getting Sean Fitzpatrick, because he was a rarity around my school (I still couldn’t tell you what position he played).

There is an undeniable sensation when you finally get the big win. According to psychologist Mark Griffiths from Nottingham Trent University, even when a gambler is losing, their “body is still producing adrenaline and endorphins”. Endorphins are your ‘feel good’ chemical which you can get from activities such as listening to your favourite music or eating really yummy food. Gambling can increase your endorphins, which makes it more attractive to come back for more. Even winning a ‘free’ ticket in the Lotto can elicit a positive response, despite it meaning your ticket and likely loss got delayed another week.

Gambling in New Zealand has been long standing, with notable displays in the mid-1800s throughout the goldrush and at gala events. In his book On a Roll: A History of Gambling and Lotteries in New Zealand, David Grant says “where there was competition there was gambling.” Book makers were first established in the 1860s, and in 1881 our first gambling legislation was passed—the Gaming and Lotteries Act 1881; prohibiting gambling, but with weak enforcement. The TAB that we know today was only possible due to a 1949 referendum to make off (race) course gambling legal. They opened their first shops in 1951, and have offered sports betting since 1996.

The number of options we have today is eye watering. At 11:57 a.m. on Friday, 20 August—the big lockdown announcement day—there were 21 different sports matches to bet on live on the New Zealand TAB, from Russian table tennis to League of Legends Esports. With a lot of people having very little to do because of lockdown, it is understandable that betting on Vladislav Chahur to win a game of table tennis that could pay out $2.20 for every $1 you put in might seem enticing. You can even bet on political outcomes; a friend of mine lost a sizable amount betting on the US elections on another site.

There have been developments in communities because of gambling and getting around sports and racing. I personally am part of a group chat packed full of sports fanatics, and it’s an awesome way to keep in touch and engaged with sports. The group “Boys Get Paid” is “A community of like minded, good people who love their racing.” Their website boasts “a community of 18,000 (and growing) avid racing and sports fans who don’t mind a beer and a bet.” These communities offer refuge and a place for us to cooperatively enjoy our sports.

The rough part about these groups can be the fact that the commonality is putting up money that you might not have, for money that you furiously want.

Whether or not people are betting on NZ TAB or offshore, it doesn’t really matter when it comes to the issues with gambling.

Gambling Issues

Another reality is that a lot of us can find ourselves betting alone. There are three notable TABs in town and from experience, it’s pretty easy for no one you know to notice you’re there. If the public spaces are too exposed, betting is at your fingertips through your phone. With the addition of Lotto and TAB to the iPhone, they have joined the world of online poker and slots, which are notorious outlets to flush through Money.

But, this was still a notable problem before the internet. I sat down with Chris*, who was at university in the 1980s, an era without pokies or even sports betting. He reiterated that problem gambling is something that those who are good at isolating themselves flourish in. He points out the difference between gambling and other addictions: “The only way you think you can get out of it is by doing it more [...] The solution is your problem.” Chris’ story started from making his first bets in his early teens, which traversed into his early twenties working at banks where he forged cheques to bet on the next race. He went to his first Gamblers Anonymous meeting at 21, but only really took control of his addiction in his late 20s. He says the reason he was able to hide it is because “It’s not easily visible to other people”. This is something which in the modern age of online betting has become even easier, when the only real person in the world seeing your bet is you.

Chris reflects on how easy it was to hide. When he started living with his now wife, he would say he was going to his Saturday cricket, and instead spent the day and $500 at the TAB. On the way home, he would rub his cricket whites on the grass to make it look like he’d played the game. Not to the same extent, but I know countless people who tell fibs about their gambling. This is usually justified as ‘withholding the truth’ for their friends and family’s own good.

This is a cautionary tale of someone who was just a casual punter who took it too far. However, you shouldn’t compare your struggle to another’s as a way to justify or invalidate it; Chris adds “look for the similarities not the differences.” This can be said about gambling and other addictions—“Addiction isn’t prejudice, it doesn’t play favourites.”

There are many services that can help if you or someone you know is struggling with gambling. These include Gamblers Anonymous, Problem Gambling NZ, and counsellors and community groups. Problem gambling can be financially devastating to the gambler and those around them. It is the silent addiction that can be hidden and grow until it is out of control.

Other Issues

As for the sportspeople who we bet on, the modern world of social media can lead to punters sending scathing and hurtful messages because a league player accidentally knocked the ball on, and that meant that someone who was about to win $2,000 on the game lost all of their winnings. In March this year, Sydney Roosters legend Josh Morris received a message saying “F___ you you dog c__ you f____my multi, I’m out the front of leumeah stadium waiting for your bus to rock up, Wait till you walk out of that back door, you won’t know what hit ya”. This is only one example of some of the vile stuff that gets thrown at these people who are simply playing their sport. As Morris’ twin brother said: “We go out there and put our bodies on the line, you don’t need to come off to people sitting behind keyboards”.

Performance Pressures

At a local level, speaking to Joel*, a former New Zealand National Youth League Football Player (Under 20s soccer), he told me about how prior to each season, they would have seminars about the gambling around their semi-professional games. Notably they were told they couldn’t bet on any soccer game whatsoever, including a World Cup final, because of the chance they could have any connection that could affect the outcome of the match. They were told that over a quarter of a million dollars was spent on each of their matches, but not on TAB or other gambling websites—the games weren’t even streamed. They had people gambling from the other side of the globe, offering these teen footballers large sums to simply supply their team list a day early to a bettor in China, so they could place their high money bets with their own bookie—“I had mates that that had happened to”, sometimes there would be offers like “Kick the ball straight out on kick off and I’ll give you 10 grand.” This correlates to the theme of people our age playing into a need for quick money for little effort. The pressure these gambling markets put on players is clearly immense, even for 19-year- olds playing for Hamilton or Nelson.

From all angles, the extremities of gambling are far closer than we often realise, with sports betting and countless other formats being available at your fingertips. The world has endless opportunities, and now is an opportune time to make sure that we’re keeping an eye on our mates and our own gambling. There’s help out there, and if it wasn’t for noticing early signs, I think I would have lost a lot more before I realised how easy it was to.

If you or someone you know is struggling, there is help:

Problem Gambling Foundation of NZ 0800 664 262 or text 8006 

Choice not Chance 24 hour helpline 0800 654 655 or text 8006 

Youth Gambling Helpline – 0800 654 659 

The Salvation Army – 0800 530 000