The Hellenic Club in Canberra, Australia has been given an AU$1.2m ($747,000) fine after a patron committed suicide following heavy gambling losses. [Image: Shutterstock.com]

A tragic incident

The Hellenic Club in Canberra will appeal a AU$1.2m ($747,000) fine received after one of its patrons died by suicide.

Raimo Kasurinen died on March 31, 2020, after a huge losing spree on poker machines at the club. In response, Kasurinen’s son-in-law David Chambers lodged a complaint with the ACT Gambling and Racing commission, alleging that the venue had failed to protect him.

In response, the commission decided to levy the fine, which it stated would send a “public warning against any further misconduct pertaining to the failure to record problem gambling incidents.”

Limits exceeded

The letter cited the club permitting Kasurinen to make several withdrawals of AU$200 (US$125) from cash machines at the club, which is over the legal amount. 

Chambers stated that the couple would regularly take “five lots of AU$200 transactions, which meant inserting the credit card each time, pop in your PIN, tricking the machine into believing that you were making a AU$200 transaction, but actually doing it five times and receiving AU$1,000 (US$622) in a single transaction.”

The Hellenic Club has denied culpability and stated their intent to appeal the decision

The regulator found the Hellenic Club at fault for permitting the withdrawals “by not recording multiple problem gambling incidents in the problem gambling incidents register within three consecutive trading days after becoming aware of the incident”. However, the Hellenic Club has denied culpability and stated their intent to appeal the decision.

“The investigation concerned the recording of problem gambling incidents in the gambling incident register maintained by the Commission and compliance with regulations relating to limits on the amount of money that could be withdrawn by club patrons via Eftpos,” an official statement from the club stated.

“Given those ongoing proceedings, it would be inappropriate for the Hellenic Club to comment any further on the substance of the Commission’s decision.”

Reformers welcome fine

Chambers described his late father-in-law as a “hard-working man,” but said that statements retrieved from the Hellenic Club showed that he and his wife had gambled at least AU$345,000 ($214,000) at the establishment since 2012.

Meanwhile, the Alliance for Gambling Reform welcomed the news of the fine. The organization’s Chief Advocate Reverend Tim Costello told ABC: “We know from two Productivity Commission reports into pokies, 63 cents in every dollar going through a machine comes from someone addicted.”

“Typically nothing happens so that’s why in this case, something happened and it’s a significant fine. It is so refreshing.”