Manukau City Councillor, Su'a William Sio appealed to parents, church and community leaders to look at ways that will help our communities stop using pokie machines and other forms of gambling.

"The pokie machines exist today because we continue to use them and we continue to fall in the trap that someday we will hit that jackpot. We need to promote the message that there is no such thing as getting something of value from nothing. Please don'’t be deceived by thinking that if you put in two, five, ten or twenty dollars into a pokie machine that you are going to get a hundred or a thousand dollars back, or become rich. This is just not true," he said.

"Gambling is motivated by a desire to get something for nothing, and this desire is destructive. The only people that win are the casino owners and those people who own the pokie machines." Councillor Sio was speaking at the Rise Up Concert organized by the Problem Gambling Foudation and the Otara Gambling Action Group held at the Otara Town Centre on Friday 23 March to launch a campaign to prevent and minimise gambling harm.

"We all have real life stories of families and friends who have suffered the loss of homes, loved ones, even their dignity and self worth as a result of their gambling appetites. I don...’t need to give you the details of these problems, we all have friends or relatives in similar kinds of situation," he said, noting that n New Zealand losses on pokie machines in bars and pubs have risen to $1.04 billion in statistics for 2004.

There are 1062 pokie machines in Manukau alone, where player losses have reached $55.4 million. He said every day in New Zealand $5.5 million is lost through gambling.

Manukau City Council, 26/03/07.