Pokies cost Canberra residents $179m in just 2010-11. And all those community grants in the ads? $11.743m

That's more than $600 lost for every adult in the ACT, from a turnover of almost $1 billion.

But of course a lot of ACT adults don't go anywhere near them, so the losses for those who do are far higher. For "problem gamblers" a much much higher price is paid.

The ACT has just shy of 5000 pokie machines. Or around one "one-armed bandit" for every 60 adults.

We've all seen the glossy ads on the tele about "our clubs" and how wonderful they are at returning their winnings to the community through grants to groups like sports clubs. The reality is that ACT clubs returned less than $12 million to the community - which was a reduction of 11% on the previous year - despite a $6 million increase in club winnings.

And some of those "grants" were dodgy to boot. Unbelievably, the Eastlake Group tried to write off the $5.2 million they paid for the Kaleen Sports Club as a "community contribution". And to cap it off, according to the Chief Executive of the ACT Gambling and Racing Commission Greg Jones, they won't be penalised in any way for trying to pull this massive theft from the community! He says such illegitimate claims are simply rejected and that's that!

What more evidence do you need that the ACT Government is addicted to pokies? It is run by the Labor Party who reap such a huge share of that $179 million through their Labor Clubs.