ROY AH-SEE remembers accessing money from a bank account earmarked to take his children to Disneyland, and gambling with it.
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Mr Ah-See, who was born and bred at Wellington’s Nanima Reserve, appears in the DVD Aboriginal Gambling: Our Stories.
In it, he describes how gambling was at first “an escape” but it led him on a journey that crippled his self-esteem before he sought help and turned his life around.
He said times were tough growing up as one of eight children and, for someone who “grew up with nothing, the easiest way of trying to get money or making a living was to win Lotto”.
“You don’t know what it’s like to have money ... some of our mob think it’s normal to be broke and it’s not,” he said.
“Then you back a couple of winners, you’re on top of the world, money in your pocket, you’re a big shot. There was a lot of ego associated with it.”
Mr Ah-See said he knew he had a problem but gambling took him to a “fantasy land” where he did not have to deal with “family or kids or work or other people’s garbage”.
“We’d planned to go overseas, we had money saved ... I’d started to gamble and accessed our account and transferred the money from our savings account we were supposed to use to go overseas. I gambled it, and it wasn’t a very nice feeling,” he said.
“That’s what happens to me when I gamble. What little bit of self esteem you’ve got, it takes it away. It’s not a good feeling. Insanity is going out, doing the same old thing and expecting a different result. I can see now that by me going out to constantly gamble and not win, that’s insanity.”
Counselling helped Mr Ah-See realise there was more to life than gambling, he said.
“The longer I stay away from that punt, the better the days are,” he said.
“We took the kids to Disneyland. It was amazing. The smile on their faces. All because I save my money now. It’s not normal to be broke. You can put your money towards something and go out and achieve it. I want to be a role model for my kids.”
As with Dubbo’s Thomas Toomey, who also appears on the DVD, Mr Ah-See’s counselling included replacing gambling with other activities.
“You’ve got to have a hobby. I’ve taken it (gambling) out and replaced it with golf.
“(Now) I pay 20 bucks and get five hours of entertainment. I’m out with nature, I’m spending time with my elders. We talk about men’s business, issues that are happening currently, Aboriginal affairs, politics, women’s business. Don’t count the days, let the days count.”