" Inducement " Gambling.

Surprisingly, there are many people who only gamble by having a small bet on the Melbourne cup each year or perhaps just being social by buying a ticket in the sweep at their workplace.  Some of the churches still preach that all forms of gambling are evil but we Australians are a wagering nation and it is said that we would bet on two flies crawling up a wall.

There was great contention many years ago when the state proposed holding a national lottery.  The fact that the profits would fund a good cause overcame many objections and the point of sale was awarded to newsagents.   This was not instant gratification.   The punter invested money by buying a ticket and that ticket had a number.  Days later all the numbers of the tickets sold were put in a barrel and the " draw " took place.   If your number was drawn, you received the major prize.

Lotto was simply a rendition of that same game, except that the punter chose six numbers of their choice and hoped that those identical numbers would be drawn from a barrel.  Lesser prizes were attributed to less than those six winning numbers that scooped the jackpot.

Both the lottery and Lotto required the punter to consciously  go to where tickets are sold - or today sit at their computer and invest online - to gamble.  The urge to gamble entered the public realm when poker machines were installed in New South Wales clubs and spread to other states.  They were initially in sporting clubs, but that option was later claimed by pubs and casinos and today it is hard to find public entertainment that does not bring you face to face with a gaming machine.

Theoretically, poker machines return most of the money gambled to the player, but their tax has become an integral part of the state economy and they are now the mainstay of the entertainment industry.  We have more poker machines per head of population than anywhere else in the world., and they tend to be concentrated in low income, working class suburbs.

Addiction to poker machines has become both a source of crime and a reason for poverty and destitution in some households.  Many become mesmerised to play in expectation of the next big payout and the machine manufacturers have devised a strategy to make play more irresistible.  It is called " losses disguised as wins " .   The machine is programmed to deliver celebratory music and graphics when the player wins an amount that is less than what was gambled.

It seems that poker machines deliver a form of hysteria. Hearing and seeing the music and graphics that herald a win becomes the euphoria that keeps punters playing and machines with this strategy are programmed to avoid long non-paying gaps by increasing the ratio of pays that fall below the amount gambled.

Naturally, the entertainment industry favours this type of machine but the NSW parliament is considering imposing a ban because they see it as an unfair inducement to gamble.  All gambling has a risk factor, but proclaiming a win that is not happening oversteps a line.