New South Wales was the first Australian state to legalise poker machines and many people remember the glory days when bus loads from other states poured over the borders for the sole purpose of playing the machines in our clubs. At that time they were restricted to registered clubs and the sport of Rugby League found them an important means of financing the individual teams in the competition.
Pressure mounted and one by one these machines not only spread to other states but also became a fixture in the gaming rooms of the hotel industry. The lure increased when the advance of electronics made it possible to link machines to offer stupendous jackpots, although the chance of winning became equally remote. There was steady pressure from anti-gambling interests to ban poker machines or at least substantially reduce the stake that can be wagered.
We do not need psychologists to know that big rewards attract people to gamble. Whenever the game of Lotto offers a multi-million jackpot draw the number of people rushing to newsagents to buy a ticket increases out of sight. We are well aware that gambling takes food off the table in many households and it is not uncommon for a breadwinner to put his or her pay packet through the machines in a moment of madness.
It is also an economic fact that the concentration of poker machines is greatest in suburbs with the lowest socio-economic resident base. In Sydney the statistics from the Fairfield area are frightening. In the 2015/16 year eighty billion dollars was put through the poker machines in the pubs and clubs of that suburban area and its preponderance of commission housing.
The figures speak for themselves. There are eighteen pubs and twenty clubs in the Fairfield council area and they host 3,836 poker machines, with a density of 24.6 machines for every thousand adults. That compares with a state average of 15.8 machines based on 2015 data.
Of course this is not all bad news. When people choose to try their luck on a poker machine they are also heavily contributing to the tax funds the government needs to run this state. The state government collected $ 1.45 billion in tax in 2016/17 and expects that to rise to $ 1.77 billion in 2010/21. If poker machines were banned, it would have to come from somewhere else !
There is pressure building to reduce the amount that may be gambled to just one dollar for each cycle of the spinning wheels. That would certainly reduce the possible loss rate per hour of play, but it would also decrease the excitement and that seems to be the main reason people play these machines. They know they will most likely lose money, but there is that anticipation that they might beat the odds and win a fabulous prize.
The government would be wise to proceed with caution. Poker machines provide a gambling outlet that patrons choose to follow. If it loses its attraction the crime industry will certainly devise something to replace it and that will be both illegal and carefully hidden from view.
We could easily end up with an even greater problem !
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