The National Gaming Control Board in Papua New Guinea has increased the minimum betting fee for pokie machines in an effort to deter people from spending their paychecks on the slot machines.
The chairperson Qwentan Chollai says the fee to play on a pokie machine went from 50 to 100 kina or 40 US dollars from the start of this month.
He says research has found problem gambling affects three percent of the local population and the majority are low to average income earners, who may only be earning 400 to 500 kina a fortnight.
"Government gets paid on Tuesday payday, the government workers, the public servants, now by the next day there's nothing left so what they do, they ask for what we call booking money, private loans, and it becomes a norm, they live on credit borrowing."
Qwentan Chollai says they are looking at setting up a public counselling office to help gambling addicts.
