The week before Australia's first COVID-19 lockdown, Barry* lost $3,000 on the pokies.
He is among many telling their story under a pseudonym due to the stigma around gambling.
"I'd been gambling for 20-years on and off with the pokies," he told The Conversation Hour.
"Not terribly, but before lockdown I was gambling a lot more."
Then the world seemingly stopped and pokies venues around the country closed.
"It shut down and I haven't been back since," he said.
Lockdown 'best thing' that happened
Not being able to go to venues was the circuit breaker, Barry needed to break his addiction.
"It is pretty amazing, you just don't have the anxiety of, oh well I've lost all this money, you don't have all that stress," he said.
He has already bought a few things for his kids and the kitchen — now he is looking to get a sports car.
Today, standing outside one of the pubs where he used to spend entire nights on electronic gambling machines, he thinks the venues are "depressing".
Most gamblers went straight back post-lockdown
Unfortunately Barry's story is not a common one.
In March 2021, Victorians spent $7.9 million dollars on electronic gambling machines every day, up 23 per cent on the previous year.
Ian*, a recovered gambling addict who now runs a peer support program, said he was seeing people lose more money now than before lockdown.
"While the venues were locked down, people accumulated large amounts of money," Ian said.
As soon as venues reopened, people came back.
"It was like a release. They were finally able to get out of the house and they had an abundance of money which they'd never had before," he said.
One person lost a year's worth of savings within two-days of pokies venues re-opening.
Calls for opening hours to be restricted
Ian is calling for opening hours to be restricted to limit how long people can spend at venues.
The Alliance for Gambling Reform's Anna Bardsley agrees.
"In Victoria we have the longest opening hours in the country, they are permitted to be open 20 hours out of 24," she said.
In many council areas pubs stagger their opening times so if gamblers "venue hop" they can use the pokies 24-hours-a-day.
While some gamblers were able to use the lockdown to break their addiction, Ms Bardsley said for most the lockdown would not have been long enough.
She hoped it had at least planted the idea that you could do without gambling.
"Australia has a massive gambling problem, we are the biggest losers in the world," she said.
"It is time for us to take gambling harm seriously."
If you or a family member are dealing with gambling addiction, you can contact the National Gambling Help Line on 1800 858 858.
