tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/gambling-in-australia-746/articlesGambling in Australia – The Conversation2023-02-03T13:30:38Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1949932023-02-03T13:30:38Z2023-02-03T13:30:38Z40 years of legal sports betting in Australia points to risks for US gamblers – and tips for regulators<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507437/original/file-20230131-10022-fhws2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=591%2C335%2C2286%2C1587&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The country's history of state-sanctioned gambling goes back to the early 19th century.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/finance-economy-racing-australia-by-neil-sands-a-man-fills-news-photo/83528625?adppopup=true">William West/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australians <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/270263728.pdf">love to gamble</a>. It’s often said that if they could, they would bet on two flies crawling up a wall. The <a href="https://legislation.nsw.gov.au/view/html/1960-04-19/act-1960-029">Sydney Opera House</a> and <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/46640222">Sydney Harbour Bridge</a> were funded, in part, by government lotteries.</p>
<p>It’s only been five years <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/14/us/politics/supreme-court-sports-betting-new-jersey.html">since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned</a> a federal law that essentially banned sports betting in most states, but in Australia, the novelty of legal sports betting has long worn off: It’s been legal <a href="https://www.vgccc.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/Australian_gambling_comparative_history_and_analysis_project_report_1999.pdf">since the 1980s</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com.au/citations?user=hJZwAYkAAAAJ&hl=en">I’ve been researching gambling in Australia</a> since 2011, and I’ve been a team member on some major studies of online gambling. I’ve also led studies on <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10899-019-09848-x">risk factors for problematic sports betting</a> and the harms associated with <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10899-018-9810-y">certain types of sports betting</a>.</p>
<p>Americans just starting to get familiar with sports betting can learn some lessons from Australia’s approach to sports betting and the research on its effects.</p>
<h2>A culture of gambling</h2>
<p>Australia has a long history of state-sanctioned gambling, dating back to the <a href="https://twitter.com/dictionaryofsyd/status/654093938979004417">first known organized horse racing event</a>, which took place <a href="https://www2.sl.nsw.gov.au/archive/discover_collections/society_art/races/horse/hydepark.html">in 1810</a>.</p>
<p>Bettors were initially required to go to a race track to place a bet. This was a hassle for many bettors, so <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/270263728.pdf">illegal bookies</a> started taking bets in places like bars. Their prices tended to be favorable because, unlike official bookmakers at the tracks, they didn’t pay a tax. </p>
<p>This prompted state governments to open off-course betting companies, starting with the state of Victoria’s <a href="https://www.afr.com/politics/tab-an-idea-that-became-a-licence-to-print-money-19920423-k4v62">Totalisator Agency Board in 1961</a>. Other states soon followed. </p>
<p>While horse betting has long been legal in Australia, sports betting wasn’t legal <a href="http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nt/consol_act/raba1983153/">until 1983</a>. That year, Totalisator Agency Boards began taking bets on sports – typically soccer, cricket and boxing. Nongovernment sportsbooks didn’t appear until 1993, when <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/gambling-2010/submissions/subdr376.pdf">Sportsbet became the first private company to obtain a license</a>. Online sports betting followed, with Centrebet.com.au, an online gambling website, <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;db=COMMITTEES;id=committees%2Fcommsen%2Fj0000351.sgm%2F0010;query=Id%3Acommittees%2Fcommsen%2Fj0000351.sgm%2F0006">launching in 1996</a>.</p>
<p>Today, many online operators take bets on sports, races and even things like <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8224531/Sportsbet-allows-punters-place-bets-Prime-Minister-Scott-Morrison-tie-colour.html">what color tie the prime minister will wear</a>.</p>
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<img alt="Black and white photo of rows of women sitting at computer terminals." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507420/original/file-20230131-15237-ay8vn7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507420/original/file-20230131-15237-ay8vn7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507420/original/file-20230131-15237-ay8vn7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507420/original/file-20230131-15237-ay8vn7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507420/original/file-20230131-15237-ay8vn7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507420/original/file-20230131-15237-ay8vn7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507420/original/file-20230131-15237-ay8vn7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Employees of Australia’s Totalisator Agency Board take and place bets over the phone in 1985.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/tabs-21st-birthday-the-tab-telephone-betting-service-news-photo/1080252258?adppopup=true">Fairfax Media Archives/Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Slowing the pace of bets</h2>
<p>Gambling’s foothold in Australian culture has had a host of repercussions.</p>
<p>Australians are the <a href="https://www.news.com.au/finance/money/costs/scary-graph-shows-how-australians-are-the-biggest-losers/news-story/4a437cd5f735b87988549b37af12917f">biggest losers worldwide</a>, losing more than twice as much to gambling per person than almost every other country. This is largely due to the ubiquitous presence of slot machines <a href="https://australiainstitute.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Pokies-pub-test-FINAL_0.pdf">in hotels and bars</a>. But Australians also <a href="https://www.news.com.au/finance/money/costs/scary-graph-shows-how-australians-are-the-biggest-losers/news-story/4a437cd5f735b87988549b37af12917f">lose more per capita</a> on sports and race betting.</p>
<p>Because sports betting in Australia existed prior to online gambling, governments had to work out what types of betting to allow online. The country has regulations in place that restrict some forms of wagering, like fast-paced betting.</p>
<p>Slot machines, for example, are fast-paced, because each spin is a bet, and a person can easily slip “<a href="https://gamblingresearch.sites.olt.ubc.ca/files/2021/04/Murch-and-Clark-2021-Understanding-the-Slot-Machine-Zone-PREPRINT.pdf">into the zone</a>,” losing track of their spending. <a href="https://www.acma.gov.au/about-interactive-gambling-act">Online slots are banned</a> for this reason.</p>
<p>Similar restrictions exist for online sports betting. Most people will place a bet <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10899-013-9415-4">before a match starts</a> and will mostly bet on who will win, or possibly by how much they will win. </p>
<p>But, over time, more betting options have become available. People can now bet on who will score first, or next, or whether a certain number of points will be scored in a quarter or half. <a href="https://freakonometrics.hypotheses.org/58041">Since 2002</a>, Australians have also been able to place bets “live” or “in-play” – in other words, during a game.</p>
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<img alt="Man in suit holds sign advertising betting odds to passersby." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507423/original/file-20230131-12-gj3y4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507423/original/file-20230131-12-gj3y4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=342&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507423/original/file-20230131-12-gj3y4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=342&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507423/original/file-20230131-12-gj3y4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=342&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507423/original/file-20230131-12-gj3y4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507423/original/file-20230131-12-gj3y4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507423/original/file-20230131-12-gj3y4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">An employee for Sportsbet holds a sign advertising betting odds for a cricket match in 2010.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/haydn-lane-from-sportsbet-com-au-holds-up-the-odds-of-news-photo/107565307?adppopup=true">William West/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>In Australia, live sports betting can be done, but not online. They must be placed by telephone call or at a venue, such as a bar, casino or betting shop, which is a storefront where people can place bets. This is partly to allow staff to intervene if someone is showing signs of problems, much like a bartender who can cut off a customer who has had too much to drink. Whether these interventions regularly occur <a href="https://www.gambleaware.nsw.gov.au/resources-and-education/check-out-our-research/published-research/responsible-conduct-of-gambling-study">is another matter</a>.</p>
<p>There is also a particularly fast-paced form of sports betting, known as <a href="https://www.playmaryland.com/sports-betting/micro/">microbetting</a>. Think of placing a bet on whether the next pitch in baseball will be a ball or a strike. </p>
<p>In studies I’ve conducted with other gambling researchers, we found that microbetting is done almost exclusively by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-018-9810-y">higher-risk gamblers</a>. In Australia, microbetting is not allowed even via phone calls, but consumers can access markets in other countries to place these bets, even though they are <a href="https://www.acma.gov.au/online-gambling-services">strongly discouraged from doing so</a>.</p>
<h2>Ads flood the airwaves</h2>
<p>With so many online betting sites in Australia, there’s a lot of competition, which means Australians are inundated with gambling ads and promotions.</p>
<p>In fact, there are <a href="https://responsiblegambling.vic.gov.au/documents/679/OBrien-Children-and-young-peoples-exposure-to-gambling-ads-Sep-2019_PBFEExL.pdf">five times as many TV ads for gambling</a> as there are alcohol ads – and Australia has <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/3k3ax5/how-dangerous-australias-drinking-culture-alcohol-global-drug-survey-2019">a pretty big drinking culture</a>.</p>
<p>These gambling ads are effective. A series of studies that I worked on, which were led by Professor Nerilee Hing from the Experimental Gambling Research Laboratory at CQUniversity, found that people who see more ads and promotions are more likely to <a href="https://responsiblegambling.vic.gov.au/resources/publications/effects-of-wagering-marketing-on-vulnerable-adults-408/">bet when they don’t intend to</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1556/2006.8.2019.10">bet more than they intend</a>, and place bets on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1556/2006.8.2019.30">more unlikely outcomes</a> – meaning they lose more.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Former sprinter Ben Johnson, who was stripped of his Olympic medals after being caught doping, stars in an ad for Sportsbet.</span></figcaption>
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<p>We also examined public advertising, such as TV ads, compared to direct messages, such as emails or text messages. We found that direct messages are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1556/2006.7.2018.99">more effective</a>, can be personalized and may be harder to regulate because they are not public.</p>
<p>Australians can also <a href="https://www.finder.com.au/gambling-transactions-using-your-credit-card-are-they-allowed">use credit cards</a> to place bets. These transactions are not treated as regular online purchases, but instead as cash advances, meaning there are no interest-free periods, and there are also higher interest rates and cash advance fees. Many consumers don’t realize this and end up being forced to fork over more money than they anticipated. Some gambling operators have even <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/nov/18/sportsbet-calls-for-ban-on-using-credit-cards-to-gamble-online-as-ama-warns-of-rising-harms">called for a ban</a> on the use of credit cards for online gambling.</p>
<h2>Regulations in play</h2>
<p>Earlier, I pointed out that some of the key ideas around restrictions for online gambling are about reducing harm. But online gambling is still available at any time, as long as you have a phone or tablet, and just about all of us do. So, imagine someone experiencing a strong gambling urge, especially someone with little self-control. It’s easier than ever to place a bet via any number of payment methods, including credit cards, at any time, including when you’re drunk.</p>
<p>Fortunately, further regulations are being introduced.</p>
<p>The federal government is ultimately responsible for legislating online gambling in Australia. The <a href="https://www.dss.gov.au/communities-and-vulnerable-people-programs-services-gambling/national-consumer-protection-framework-for-online-wagering-national-policy-statement">National Consumer Protection Framework</a> is a government initiative intended to implement changes to online sports and race betting, including restrictions on gambling promotions, and a national self-exclusion program.</p>
<p>Heavy bettors typically have accounts with multiple gambling operators, and if they wanted to opt out, previously they would have had to do so with each operator. Soon, they will be able to self-exclude in one place, through a government-run program called “<a href="https://www.acma.gov.au/betstop-national-self-exclusion-register">Betstop</a>,” and this will apply across all online operators. </p>
<p>Consumers are also able to set limits and monitor how much they have spent. As of 2019, every online gaming provider is required to offer deposit limits, although consumers do not have to take them up. However, our research team has found that voluntary limits – many of which are sky-high – only have so much use, and that mandatory limits with reasonable maximum levels would <a href="https://www.cqu.edu.au/cquninews/stories/research-category/2022-research/setting-limits-makes-a-difference,-but-gamblers-need-more-prompts-to-opt-in-cqu-research">make a bigger difference</a>. </p>
<p>Unlike Australia, where sports betting was legal before online betting was invented, U.S. states are introducing legalized sports betting at a time when technology allows for many types of betting products, including particularly dangerous ones. It is important for U.S. legislators and regulators to consider not just whether sports betting should be legal, but which betting products should be allowed, and what harm-reduction regulations could be implemented.</p>
<p>Different U.S. states have <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/willyakowicz/2023/01/09/where-is-sports-betting-legal-america-2022/?sh=62db3f04386b">different restrictions on sports betting</a>, with some not allowing it at all, some only allowing it in person, and some allowing just about everything, including online wagers. Some states also have restrictions on <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/sports-betting-laws-by-state-5219064">certain bet types</a>.</p>
<p>While some people will argue that it is up to bettors to keep themselves safe, it is important to remember that no one sets out to develop a gambling problem. And gambling products are, by nature, addictive.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194993/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex Russell has received funding from the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation, the New South Wales Office of Responsible Gambling, the South Australian State Government, the Queensland Justice and Attorney-General, Gambling Research Australia, the New Zealand Ministry of Health, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, the National Association for Gambling Studies and the Alberta Gambling Research Institute. He has had travel expenses paid to present research by the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation, PsychMed and the Hawthorn Hawks Football Club Players’ Association.</span></em></p>Australians lose more money gambling on sports, per capita, than any country in the world.Alex Russell, Senior Postdoctoral Fellow, CQUniversity AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1268382019-11-15T04:13:07Z2019-11-15T04:13:07ZPlace your bets: will banning illegal offshore sites really help kick our gambling habit?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301886/original/file-20191115-47184-1g3lekj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=83%2C92%2C5516%2C4099&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">While total gambling spending in Australia decreased during 2016-17, sports betting increased by 15.3%, from A$921 million to A$1.062 billion.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">SHUTTERSTOCK</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-11/illegal-offshore-gambling-websites-to-be-blocked-government/11691044">going to start</a> asking internet service providers to block certain offshore gambling websites. </p>
<p>The decision follows former New South Wales premier Barry O’Farrell’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/government-ignores-elephant-in-the-room-in-response-to-online-gambling-review-52751">2016 review</a> of the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2019C00070">Interactive Gambling Act</a>, which suggested banning access to sites not licensed in Australia. </p>
<p>The review focused on the dangers of these “illegal” sites. The concern was that they didn’t offer consumers the same protection given by gambling businesses licensed in Australia. </p>
<p>In 2017, the federal government <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2017A00085">empowered ACMA</a> to block such sites, and prohibit online advertising promoting them.</p>
<h2>The wild, unregulated internet</h2>
<p>The perceived problem with offshore gambling sites is that they’re not regulated according to Australian standards. Also, they don’t pay tax in Australia. Federal cyber safety minister Paul Fletcher <a href="https://www.paulfletcher.com.au/media-releases/media-release-taking-action-against-illegal-offshore-gambling-websites">claims</a> this results in A$100 million in lost tax each year.</p>
<p>The Interactive Gambling Act also prohibits Australia’s online gambling providers offering any form of gambling apart from wagering or lottery sales. But on the internet, casino-style games, poker, and slot machines are readily available from offshore providers. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/education-not-restriction-is-key-to-reducing-harm-from-offshore-gambling-100516">Education, not restriction, is key to reducing harm from offshore gambling</a>
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<p>However, the extent to which online gambling via offshore sites is a problem may be altogether exaggerated. </p>
<p>At the time of the O'Farrell review, A$400 million was being wagered on offshore sites by Australians, at most. Given Aussies lost about A$22 billion to gambling in 2015, that represented less than 2% of the gambling market. </p>
<p>Most gambling losses are from poker machines. During 2016-17, more than <a href="https://www.qgso.qld.gov.au/issues/2646/australian-gambling-statistics-34th-edn-1991-92-2016-17-summary-tables.xlsx">A$12 billion was lost on pokies</a>. This made up just over half of that period’s total losses of A$23.7 billion, compared to A$1 billion lost on sports betting and A$3.3 billion lost on race wagering. </p>
<p>In addition, the <a href="https://www.responsiblegambling.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/280537/NSW-Gambling-Survey-2019-Full-Report.PDF">2019 survey of gambling activity in NSW</a> indicated about 0.5% of the population used casino games on the internet, and about 0.3% bet on online poker. </p>
<p>Neither of these are legally available online in Australia. This indicates the population actually using offshore providers may be very small. </p>
<h2>It’s whack-a-mole, but not a hands-on solution</h2>
<p>In any event, attempting to block access to internet sites is problematic. It requires cooperation with (<a href="https://www.itnews.com.au/news/acma-to-force-isps-to-block-illegal-offshore-gambling-sites-533760">or coercion of</a>) Internet Service Providers. </p>
<p>Sites needing to be blocked must first be identified, and specific technical information must be provided to ISPs to facilitate the block. Meanwhile, those running the site can change its name or move domains, and start where they left off. It’s essentially a game of whack-a-mole. </p>
<p>That said, this doesn’t mean it can’t be done. The <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/news/testimony/law-enforcement-implications-of-illegal-online-gambling">United States has prosecuted</a> multiple offshore gambling providers for breaching its internet gambling ban. But enforcing such a ban chews up precious resources.</p>
<h2>The problems lie with us</h2>
<p>Most of <a href="https://www.dss.gov.au/communities-and-vulnerable-people/programmes-services/gambling/review-of-illegal-offshore-wagering">O'Farrell’s recommendations</a> were concerned with improving consumer protection regulations for Australian sites, and <a href="https://www.dss.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/11_2018/national-policy-statement.pdf">developing and then persuading the states</a> to agree to these.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/action-on-problem-gambling-online-is-a-good-first-step-but-no-silver-bullet-76857">Action on problem gambling online is a good first step, but no silver bullet</a>
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<p>At the time, more harm was being inflicted by Australian registered wagering companies than offshore sites. This is probably still the case. <a href="https://www.financialcounsellingaustralia.org.au/docs/duds-mugs-and-the-a-list-the-impact-of-uncontrolled-sportsbetting/">Financial Counselling Australia</a> pointed this out in great detail prior to the O'Farrell review, as did <a href="https://theconversation.com/online-gambling-review-should-not-ignore-the-problems-in-our-own-backyard-47155">others</a>. </p>
<p>The recommendations have now been largely adopted. The states have reformed taxation arrangements for Australian licensed bookmakers, imposing <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/new-online-betting-taxes-to-squeeze-foreign-bookies-20181231-p50oxv.html">point-of-consumption taxes</a>. This means the gambling tax on bookies is imposed in the state where the bet is placed, rather than where it’s licensed. </p>
<p>This makes allowance for the fact that, although most online Australian bookmakers are licensed in the Northern Territory, most of their business comes from other states. Bookies prefer the Northern Territory because of its low tax regime, which collects only A$7 million out of A$2 billion in wagering losses, less than <a href="https://www.qgso.qld.gov.au/issues/2646/australian-gambling-statistics-34th-edn-1991-92-2016-17-state-tables.xlsx">4% of revenue</a>. </p>
<p>It has also had a traditionally relaxed approach to regulation, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/sportsbet-ordered-to-pay-winnings-on-unfairly-cancelled-afl-bets-20191031-p536bt.html">although this may be changing</a>.</p>
<h2>Marketing drives gambling</h2>
<p>There’s little doubt <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/money/online-sports-betting-is-creating-a-new-generation-of-problem-gamblers-20170918-gyjlc3.html">online</a> gambling (done offshore or domestically) causes <a href="https://responsiblegambling.vic.gov.au/resources/publications/assessing-gambling-related-harm-in-victoria-a-public-health-perspective-69/">significant</a> <a href="https://responsiblegambling.vic.gov.au/resources/publications/weighing-up-the-odds-young-men-sports-and-betting-394/">harm</a>. It has the potential to cause even more, as an increasing number of people are attracted by bookies’ advertisements. </p>
<p>Gambling companies sponsor sports and sporting teams around Australia, with their logos prominent on sports uniforms, on the field, and on memorabilia. The recent Melbourne Cup carnival was a case in point, as are football finals, the Australian Open, and most other major sporting events.</p>
<p>While some people bet online with providers not licensed in Australia, there are still myriad online Australian betting sites available. Website <a href="https://www.sportsbetting.com.au/">Sportsbetting</a> grew by an average of just under <a href="https://www.qgso.qld.gov.au/issues/2646/australian-gambling-statistics-34th-edn-1991-92-2016-17-product-tables.xlsx">20% per year (adjusted for inflation) between 2011 and 2017</a>. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pokies-sport-and-racing-harm-41-of-monthly-gamblers-survey-81486">Pokies, sport and racing harm 41% of monthly gamblers: survey</a>
</strong>
</em>
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<p>The submission of the <a href="https://responsiblegambling.vic.gov.au/documents/11/submission-impact-illegal-offshore-wagering.pdf">Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation</a> to the O'Farrell review in 2016 argued growth in online gambling was almost certainly fuelled by intense advertising by bookmakers.</p>
<h2>We need to re-focus</h2>
<p>If we were genuinely concerned about reducing gambling harm, an important step would be to ban or further restrict bookmakers’ advertising capacity.</p>
<p>Currently, “whistle to whistle” bans (five minutes before commencement of play, and until five minutes after play concludes) are in effect for football and other short broadcasts, courtesy of a <a href="https://www.freetv.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Free_TV_Commercial_Television_Industry_Code_of_Practice_2018.pdf">self-regulatory code</a>. </p>
<p>After 8.30pm, however, gambling advertising is permitted and plenty of young people are still watching at this time, being <a href="https://responsiblegambling.vic.gov.au/resources/publications/extent-of-and-children-and-young-peoples-exposure-to-gambling-advertising-in-sport-and-non-sport-tv-679/">bombarded with bookies’ ads</a>.</p>
<p>There are also numerous exemptions for advertising during “long form” sports such as cricket, and for racing broadcasts. </p>
<p>As we’ve learned from <a href="https://www.who.int/tobacco/mpower/enforce/en/">tobacco</a>, our next step towards gambling harm prevention would be to prohibit advertising and sponsorship. That is, if we really do want to prevent harm.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126838/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles Livingstone has received funding from the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation, the (former) Victorian Gambling Research Panel, and the South Australian Independent Gambling Authority (the funds for which were derived from hypothecation of gambling tax revenue to research purposes), from the Australian and New Zealand School of Government and the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education, and from non-government organisations for research into multiple aspects of poker machine gambling, including regulatory reform, existing harm minimisation practices, and technical characteristics of gambling forms. He has received travel and co-operation grants from the Alberta Problem Gambling Research Institute, the Finnish Institute for Public Health, the Finnish Alcohol Research Foundation, the Ontario Problem Gambling Research Committee, and the Problem Gambling Foundation of New Zealand. He was a Chief Investigator on an Australian Research Council funded project researching mechanisms of influence on government by the tobacco, alcohol and gambling industries. He has undertaken consultancy research for local governments and non-government organisations in Australia and the UK seeking to restrict or reduce the concentration of poker machines and gambling impacts, and was a member of the Australian government's Ministerial Expert Advisory Group on Gambling in 2010-11. He is a member of the Australian Greens.</span></em></p>Banning offshore gambling sites sounds sensible enough, and the federal government is planning to do this. But to what extent are these sites really ripping off Australian gamblers?Charles Livingstone, Associate Professor, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/135792013-04-25T20:43:27Z2013-04-25T20:43:27ZResponsible gambling and the spectacle of the ‘problem gambler’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/22837/original/qnz2wrmm-1366776882.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pokies- rather than individuals - form the backbone of Australia’s gambling problem.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Dan Peled</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Institutions that make big money out of gambling – such as governments, casinos, clubs and pubs – are fond of telling us how much they care about problem gambling. </p>
<p>Clubs Australia (the peak body for the institutions where most of Australia’s poker machines are located) sees itself as <a href="http://www.clubsaustralia.com.au/policy/responsible-gambling">part of the solution</a> – although it also sees the problem as “a small minority” of poker machine gamblers. </p>
<p>This concern is usually articulated via the rubric of “responsible gambling”. This, as a colleague and I <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14459790701601810">once commented</a>, is a carefully structured, elastic and goalless term. It transfers responsibility for gambling problems to end users rather than those profiting from the dangerous product. </p>
<p>This has led to education programs, counselling services and notices urging gamblers to “gamble responsibly”. Certainly, there are codes of responsible service of gambling requiring providers to offer relevant information, not to offer inducements and restrict advertising. But in general responsible gambling is about individuals being urged to exercise individual responsibility.</p>
<p>The most recent example of this is the campaign currently underway in Victoria, funded and developed by the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation (VRGF). VRGF is an organisation recently established by the Victorian government to undertake the amelioration of gambling harms, fund research, and so on.</p>
<p>The campaign, <a href="http://www.fightforyou.com.au/">Fight for the Real You</a>, features four real people sharing real stories via a daily video diary as they tackle their problems with gambling in their “<a href="http://www.responsiblegambling.vic.gov.au/blog/problem-gambling-exposed-world-first-campaign">100 Day Challenge</a>”, where:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Our heroes’ stories will be shared via internet films; TV, cinema and online commercials; radio advertisements; and posters in gaming venues.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The campaign will also feature online tools to help people control or stop gambling, and links to counselling services and forums (although, as the Productivity Commission pointed out in section 7 of its 2010 report, only about <a href="http://www.pc.gov.au/projects/inquiry/gambling-2009/report">10%-15% of problem gamblers</a> use counselling services).</p>
<p>I sincerely hope this campaign helps people overcome the harm being done to them and their families by gambling (especially those featured in the campaign). However, its adoption of “reality” TV concepts that transform affected individuals into a spectacle is alarming, and its likely effectiveness is highly debatable. It may also be at odds with the campaign’s goal to reduce the stigma thought to hinder take up of counselling.</p>
<p>But above all this represents another high profile campaign that unequivocally loads the responsibility of “responsible gambling” squarely on to the shoulders of those carrying the costs of the industry.</p>
<h2>If well-resourced TV campaigns won’t stop problem gambling, what will?</h2>
<p>The answer to that question can be derived from the history of the public health movement, which had its origins in the mapping of patterns of disease – for example, the way cases of typhoid clustered around a water well, suggesting that the well was likely to be the source of the outbreak.</p>
<p>The way to deal with such a situation is, of course, to fix the well. Better to render the water supply safe for people to use (an “upstream” response), rather than just hand out antibiotics after people are infected and hope they help (a “downstream” response).</p>
<p>This is often referred to as building a fence at the top of the cliff, rather than basing an ambulance at the bottom.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vQdFn9cYeOI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A ‘Fight For The Real You’ commercial.</span></figcaption>
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<p>However, cleaning up the source of disease or harm can be unpopular with those who must foot the bill – whether they are local authorities required to clean up a water supply, cigarette manufacturers facing restrictions in the promotion of their product, or pokie businesses anxious about a loss of revenue.</p>
<p>Despite such obstacles, public health learnt long ago that it is far more efficient and effective, and more humane, to fix the source of a problem than to deal with its consequences. Dealing with avoidable harms after they’ve been inflicted means that costs and suffering are much greater than they need be.</p>
<p>The main cause of gambling problems in Australia is poker machines. This is because they are ubiquitous, high impact (they devour a lot of money very quickly) and provide a continuous form of gambling. They are also carefully engineered to be as attractive as possible to users. In effect, they provide <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/13/business/how-slot-machines-raise-our-hopes-even-when-were-losing.html">“addiction by design”</a>, as Natasha Schüll of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology entitled her recent book on the subject.</p>
<p>The public health response to the poker machine industry is not to ban it. In fact, it has echoed the Productivity Commission. Both want reasonable restrictions on the amount of harm these devices can inflict on their users. </p>
<p>The Productivity Commission recommended two big ideas in this respect: pre-commitment (allowing people to pre-set a solid limit on how much they spend while gambling) and lower maximum bets – $1 per spin rather than the current $10 in NSW and <a href="http://www.olgr.qld.gov.au/resources/gamDocs/DiscussionPaper_RedTapeReduction_Feb_2013.pdf">proposed for introduction in Queensland</a>.</p>
<p>In the face of the opposition of the NSW gambling industry, articulated via the threat of a marginal seats campaign, the federal government reneged on its deal with independent MP Andrew Wilkie to introduce pre-commitment. The industry said there was little evidence to support mandatory pre-commitment. In its place, the federal government legislated a policy (voluntary pre-commitment) that does have a solid evidence base: everyone knows it will be almost <a href="http://www.pc.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/95708/25-appendixc.pdf">completely ineffective</a>.</p>
<p>It’s business as usual for pokie harm reduction: responsible gambling.</p>
<p>At its core, “responsible gambling” is a downstream response. It deflect responsibility to affected individuals and, for the most part, only after they’ve fallen off a cliff.</p>
<p>We know what needs to be done to minimise gambling harm. It’s time we stopped reminding those damaged by this irresponsible industry that it’s all their fault. It’s time to start building that fence at the top of the cliff.</p>
<p>We might then be able to proudly claim that we do have a responsible gambling culture. We certainly can’t make that claim now.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/13579/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The author has received no funding from alcohol, tobacco or gambling industry sources. No funding was received from any source in relation to the contents of this article.</span></em></p>Institutions that make big money out of gambling – such as governments, casinos, clubs and pubs – are fond of telling us how much they care about problem gambling. Clubs Australia (the peak body for the…Charles Livingstone, Senior Lecturer, Global Health and Society, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/131702013-04-03T19:32:16Z2013-04-03T19:32:16ZSport, Tom Waterhouse and the ‘gamblification’ of everyday life<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/22000/original/227gg24p-1364962010.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Bookmaker Tom Waterhouse (centre) is the subject of a parliamentary inquiry as the infiltration of betting into professional sport continues.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Mick Tsikas</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the Easter weekend in Australia the furore around gambling and sport intensified. Prominent racehorse trainer Gai Waterhouse <a href="http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/famous-trainer-gai-waterhouse-tells-politicians-to-lay-off-her-son-tom/story-e6frg12c-1226609536401">defended</a> her son Tom’s gambling business in the tabloids, and <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/greens-bill-to-ban-odds-on-sport-shows-20130401-2h32p.html">legislation was proposed</a> to limit gambling’s intrusion into coverage of sport. </p>
<p>Channel Nine, meanwhile, <a href="http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/tom-waterhouse-put-on-the-bench-at-channel-9/story-e6frexnr-1226608038939">agreed with a parliamentary committee</a> that it had overstepped the mark by blending commentary and marketing by engaging Tom Waterhouse in their NRL telecasts this season.</p>
<p>TV ads, hoardings around the ground and club websites as well as the jerseys, shorts, and - in the case of the NRL, the <a href="http://www.austadiums.com/stadiums/stadiums.php?id=86">name of the ground</a> on which the sport is played - are all used to promote gambling. It’s clear that the promotion of gambling is omnipresent in Australian sport, and now presents a supreme irritant for fans.</p>
<p>In the face of this, it’s important to realise that sports betting - although the current focus of public ire - accounts for only $350 million or so of Australia’s $18.5 billion expenditure (that is to say, losses) on gambling in 2009-10, the most recent year for which we have <a href="http://www.oesr.qld.gov.au/products/publications/aus-gambling-stats/index.php">comprehensive data</a>. Of this, $10.2 billion went into poker machines in local clubs and pubs. Horse racing consumed $2.7 billion, casinos $3.6 billion.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, sports betting is the fastest growing segment of the gambling market. It is focused on a new generation of potential gamblers, for whom the pokies hold few attractions.</p>
<p>This is perhaps why Clubs Australia <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/national/clubs-push-for-online-casino-games-monopoly-20120706-21mj1.html">wants its members</a> to be monopoly licensed to operate online gambling sites. They can see that the future of gambling is online and mobile.</p>
<p>At the heart of the present furore is that Australians, like many other nationalities, love sport. To see it “polluted” by crass commercialism is something many people find <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/all-men-are-liars-20130329-2gyf5.html">greatly offensive</a>.</p>
<p>Along with this, a big difference between, say, the pokies and sports betting is that pokies are largely concentrated in <a href="http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.3109/16066359.2012.727507">areas of disadvantage</a>. Most people – 70% or more of the adult population - never use pokies, and avoid their habitat. Similarly with casinos and the races: if you’re not interested, they are relatively avoidable, save for the occasional racing carnival.</p>
<p>Sports betting is in your face, on TV, at the ground and in the sports pages of newspapers. More importantly, it’s in the faces of your children, on footy tipping websites, on the uniforms of their heroes, and endlessly promoted during coverage of their favourite games.</p>
<p>We don’t know with certainty what the results of this will be. We do however hear numerous accounts of <a href="https://theconversation.com/sports-betting-and-children-12114">children able to recite the odds</a> of various betting possibilities, as they once recited the game statistics of favoured players. We do know that ready accessibility to gambling is a major risk factor for gambling problems. Sports betting could hardly be more available, and the knowledge of how, and where, to do it is ubiquitous in mediums where children are at home. It is not hard to deduce the likely consequences of this new preoccupation.</p>
<p>Since a <a href="http://flr.law.anu.edu.au/sites/flr.anulaw.anu.edu.au/files/flr/Ball.pdf">High Court decision</a> in 2008 authorised interstate marketing of online bookies, we have witnessed the “gamblification” of sport, and to a certain extent everyday life, as the bookies take advantage of a perfect storm of intensified marketing opportunities, technological innovation, and ineffective regulation.</p>
<p>The bookies promote themselves by offering odds on novelty bets – whether the trains will run on time, who the next Pope will be, whether the prime minister will make it to the election. In most cases, these are simply <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s3621083.htm">ploys for free media coverage</a>. The media generally oblige, hungry for free copy.</p>
<p>But this is not simply marketing. A critical element of the “perfect storm” is reflexivity – the social fact that we change our perceptions of reality and our associated social practices as a consequence of how reality is presented to us.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/22012/original/mm2pfs6m-1364963301.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/22012/original/mm2pfs6m-1364963301.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/22012/original/mm2pfs6m-1364963301.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/22012/original/mm2pfs6m-1364963301.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/22012/original/mm2pfs6m-1364963301.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/22012/original/mm2pfs6m-1364963301.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/22012/original/mm2pfs6m-1364963301.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Betting companies like Centrebet have lucrative sponsorship deals with sporting organisations, covering stadium hoardings to players’ shorts.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Action Photographics</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The generation that grows up with sports betting, pokie apps, online casinos and football clubs desperate to profit from and market gambling is likely to produce problem gamblers in record numbers. This will not be because they are any more venal or flawed than any other generation. Rather, the world they inhabit will be - if it is not already - one where gambling is portrayed as the epitome of a normal healthy life.</p>
<p>Once upon a time, the tobacco industry successfully sought to normalise smoking by its sponsorship of sport. That <a href="http://www.health.gov.au/internet/ministers/publishing.nsf/Content/health-mediarel-yr2006-cp-pyn059.htm">ended</a> when we realised the harm that was done by allowing “the best and soundest thing” (as <a href="http://sherlock-holmes.classic-literature.co.uk/the-adventure-of-the-missing-three-quarter/ebook-page-02.asp">Sherlock Holmes put it</a>) in society to become dependent on tobacco dollars.</p>
<p>Gambling doesn’t yet have sport in a stranglehold, as the pokies lobby does with Australia’s state and territory governments. We can act to limit the promotion of gambling during broadcasts watched by children, and the sporting codes can wean themselves off the still-modest dollars they make from associating themselves with bookies.</p>
<p>By and large, state governments have not been up to the challenge of sensibly regulating the promotion of sports betting. If there is to be an effective response, it must come from Canberra. Against the recent onslaught from Clubs Australia over pokie reform, the current government turned to water. Perhaps the backlash against the bookies will empower them to act.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/13170/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles Livingstone previously received funding from VicHealth (the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation) and Uniting Care Australia for research relevant to this article. He does not receive funding from gambling, alcohol, or tobacco interests.</span></em></p>Over the Easter weekend in Australia the furore around gambling and sport intensified. Prominent racehorse trainer Gai Waterhouse defended her son Tom’s gambling business in the tabloids, and legislation…Charles Livingstone, Senior Lecturer, Global Health and Society, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/119962013-02-05T01:02:17Z2013-02-05T01:02:17ZWe got fed a line but carbon tax compo wasn’t ‘swallowed’ by pokies<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/19926/original/6m6zv7wh-1360019929.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Evidence shows most people did not gamble away their carbon tax compensation, despite media claims at the time.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Like many policy issues in Australia, the public debate and media coverage on the relationship between government payments and spending at electronic gaming machines or ‘pokies’ is sensationalist and exaggerated. </p>
<p>Much of it can accurately be described as fearmongering. Tabloid coverage following the distribution of the Carbon Tax compensation cheques in May and June 2012 was no exception. <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/pokies-swallow-carbon-tax-compo-20120718-229du.html">Headlines</a> from 18 July in Fairfax publications, the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age read “Pokies swallow carbon tax compo”. </p>
<p>A similar headline,“<a href="http://www.afr.com/p/national/gambled_away_pokies_swallow_carbon_jUmfC6pfzBsF7j4OgFLrgI">Gambled away: pokies swallow carbon tax compo</a>”, appeared in the Australian Financial Review on the same day. The Brisbane Times also <a href="http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/pokies-soaking-up-carbon-tax-cash-handouts-20120805-23n91.html">reported</a> that poker machines were ‘soaking up’ the carbon tax cash ‘handouts’. No matter what you read the message was identical: Australians blew their carbon tax compensation cheques at the pokies.</p>
<p>In an <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2012/s3548754.htm">interview with ABC’s Lateline</a>, anti-pokies crusader Nick Xenophon described the cheques as an unjust enrichment to pokies operators and referred to them as an “electoral bribe”. He then suggested in-kind rebates are more appropriate policy instruments than cash transfers. </p>
<p>The implication was that Australians didn’t make appropriate consumption decisions and the government should have placed limits on their spending discretion. The problem is that Xenophon and the media were wrong and the public was misled: the carbon tax cheques were not “swallowed” by poker machines under any reasonable use of the word.</p>
<p>The methodology used by pundits and the media – calculating the percentage change in gambling losses between May 2011 and May 2012 – is inappropriate for at least three reasons. The first, and probably the most obvious, is that correlation doesn’t imply causality. A multitude of extraneous factors can explain year-on-year changes in gambling at poker machines.</p>
<p>Second, the method fails to account for time trends in spending at electronic gaming machines (EGMs). The overall trend for Victoria has been a decline since 2009. Moreover, many areas of Victoria have predictable seasonality patterns. The Surf Coast, for example, sees the majority of gambling in the summer months.</p>
<p>The third problem is selection bias, even if the 7% year-on-year increase in Bendigo was the direct effect of the carbon tax cheques, this doesn’t imply a widespread “swallowing” across the entire state as suggested by media coverage. </p>
<p>Maroondah, which has higher rates of spending than Bendigo, recorded a year on year decrease of 7%. On the lower end of the spectrum, Bass Coast saw a 14% decrease in May 2012. Should we conclude from this that the carbon tax cheques decreased spending at EGMs?</p>
<p>Figure 1 shows a box plot of “Net Expenditure” – the industry term for gambling losses – per EGM across all Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Victoria over the period July 2004 to June 2012. The data come from the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation (VCGLR), which has kept track of spending at poker machines in Victoria since 1992.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/19930/original/3d42xgth-1360021762.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/19930/original/3d42xgth-1360021762.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/19930/original/3d42xgth-1360021762.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/19930/original/3d42xgth-1360021762.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/19930/original/3d42xgth-1360021762.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/19930/original/3d42xgth-1360021762.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=659&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/19930/original/3d42xgth-1360021762.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=659&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/19930/original/3d42xgth-1360021762.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=659&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Click to enlarge.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A casual glance at Figure 1 reveals that some LGAs are clearly more consistent than others. For the 2011-12 financial year, the average net expenditure per EGM in Whittlesea – home to 621 machines – was $11,087 per month. </p>
<p>The yearly total at June 2012 was more than $1 million or roughly 4% of the $2.6 billion recorded in Victoria. At roughly $600 per adult, it’s no surprise that Australia has the highest per capita EGM expenditure in the world. In absolute terms, spending at EGMs in Australia is about the same as Las Vegas and Atlantic City combined.</p>
<p>In a paper to be released in the 2013 Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series, Hielke Buddelmeyer and I show there was no significant increase in spending at poker machines in May or June 2012. </p>
<p>There was, however, a clear and measurable increase in spending at EGMs following the 2008-09 stimulus cheques. We have made our methods and data publicly available on Dataverse so that others can replicate our findings.</p>
<p>Figure 2 shows the estimated monthly anomalies in net expenditure for each of the 96 months in the 2004-2012 period we examined. The largest anomaly, estimated to fall within $669 to $1011 per EGM, occurred when the December 2008 stimulus cheques were paid to Australian households. By contrast, estimated monthly anomalies of -$374 to $14 and -$200 to $187 per EGM occurred when the carbon tax cheques were distributed in May and June 2012. </p>
<p>Although this suggests Victorians spent less than expected at EMGs during the carbon tax compensation months, the uncertainties in the May and June 2012 estimates are too large to place a great deal of confidence in them. Because the signs for these estimates fall on both sides of zero any inference risks what is sometimes called a “Type S error”. The true anomalies could have been negative, or slightly positive.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/19931/original/npw9zdz7-1360022975.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/19931/original/npw9zdz7-1360022975.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/19931/original/npw9zdz7-1360022975.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/19931/original/npw9zdz7-1360022975.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/19931/original/npw9zdz7-1360022975.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/19931/original/npw9zdz7-1360022975.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=701&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/19931/original/npw9zdz7-1360022975.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=701&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/19931/original/npw9zdz7-1360022975.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=701&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Click to enlarge</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Nevertheless, the May and June 2012 anomalies are hardly synonymous with a swallowing. Because gambling is a normal good – consumption increases with income – some portion of any windfall income or “handouts” provided by the government will find its way into poker machines. </p>
<p>For the same reason economists expect an increase in retail sales after a boost to household income any increase in gambling is unsurprising. The relatively insignificant spending estimates for the carbon tax months were unexpected. There are two likely explanations for this.</p>
<p>First, the carbon tax compensation cheques were much smaller than the 2008-2009 fiscal stimulus cheques. As an exercise, assume a person’s marginal propensity to gamble at EMGs is constant, say 0.20. Then she would spend 20 cents of every additional dollar of income at EGMs. The total amount distributed by the carbon tax compensation cheques was about $325 million and Victoria’s share of this was about $79 million. Using the assumption that everyone in Victoria has a 0.20 marginal propensity to gamble implies $15.8 million extra spent at EGMs. This estimate is much larger if we consider the stimulus cheques.</p>
<p>We estimated Victoria’s share of the December 2008 fiscal stimulus was $2.2 billion. Under the same assumptions this implies an increase in EGM spending of $440 million. Of course, we know that the hypothetical marginal propensity to gamble of 0.20 cannot be applied to the entire population as surveys suggest only 20% of Victorian adults frequent EGMs. </p>
<p>The point is that the sheer size of the December 2008 cheques makes any relationship between gambling and windfall income easier to measure, as illustrated by Figure 2. On the whole, we estimated that about $22.5 million, or 1%, of the December 2008 stimulus was lost at EGMs in Victoria. This is clearly a substantial amount of money but it only accounts for a small fraction of the December 2008 stimulus.</p>
<p>The second explanation lies in the fact that the carbon tax cheques were described as a rebate to offset a forthcoming tax whereas the stimulus cheques were framed as a bonus. </p>
<p>Behavioural economists and psychologists have demonstrated in a number of experiments that people are more likely to spend and spending rates are much higher when windfall income is framed as a bonus rather than a rebate. </p>
<p>If we accept that these experimental results are generalisable then it is no surprise that the stimulus cheques created substantial anomalies in net expenditure and the carbon tax cheques did not.</p>
<p>Whatever the moral concerns about gambling may be, it is simply not true that the carbon tax cheques or the stimulus cheques were “swallowed” by poker machines. A relatively small amount of any form of windfall income will always end up in EGMs. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/19935/original/b35q4tw5-1360023999.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/19935/original/b35q4tw5-1360023999.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/19935/original/b35q4tw5-1360023999.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/19935/original/b35q4tw5-1360023999.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/19935/original/b35q4tw5-1360023999.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/19935/original/b35q4tw5-1360023999.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/19935/original/b35q4tw5-1360023999.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An observable amount of the Rudd government’s stimulus payment made its way into pokies, with people more likely to spend windfall incomes that are framed as a bonus.</span>
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</figure>
<p>It appears that enough of the stimulus money made its way into poker machines to create an observable anomaly in EGM expenditure but the same cannot be said for the carbon tax cheques. Of course, the relevant public policy issue is how problem gamblers – a very small number of Australians – are affected by EGMs. </p>
<p>The most reliable estimates available come from the Productivity Commission and suggest that 80,000 to 160,000 or 0.5% to 1% of Australian adults have significant gambling problems. </p>
<p>This includes about 15% (or 95,000) of Australia’s 600,000 regular EGM players. For the same reason that a few crazy politicians doesn’t necessitate mental health screening as a prerequisite to holding office, we shouldn’t require all government spending to be in the form of in-kind transfers to prevent some money ending up in poker machines.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/11996/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kyle is an economist at the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research. In March 2013 he will be a parlimentary fellow with Andrew Leigh, MP. He can be reached at <a href="mailto:kyle.peyton@unimelb.edu.au">kyle.peyton@unimelb.edu.au</a> or on twitter @peyton_k.</span></em></p>Like many policy issues in Australia, the public debate and media coverage on the relationship between government payments and spending at electronic gaming machines or ‘pokies’ is sensationalist and exaggerated…Kyle Peyton, Economist , The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/35382011-09-26T02:35:05Z2011-09-26T02:35:05ZPlaying the game: AFL, NRL and the campaign against the Wilkie pokie reforms<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/3836/original/PIC_-_pokies_lead.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">AFL and NRL clubs say they face financial losses if punters like this are forced into a pre-commitment scheme.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Federal Government’s plan to introduce pre-commitment systems on pokie machines in order to reduce problem gambling has become a major political headache.</p>
<p>A campaign by Clubs Australia targeting Labor MPs in NSW has seen growing backbench concern in the Gillard government.</p>
<p>Now the National Rugby League (NRL) and the Australian Football League (AFL) are set to become involved in the debate.</p>
<p>Former Victorian Premier and Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/kennett-warns-clubs-code-at-risk/story-fn59niix-1226146309133">claims the Wilkie reforms</a> will cause AFL clubs to go under while Collingwood president eddie McGuire <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/national/afl-nrl-join-forces-to-fight-pokies-legislation-20110925-1krrx.html">has labelled the plan</a> a “footy tax”.</p>
<p>In NSW, commentators on NRL matches <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/afl-puts-the-boot-into-pokie-plans-20110925-1krkh.html">have openly campaigned</a> against the tax on air.</p>
<p>The Conversation spoke to pokie industry expert James Doughney to find where, in this febrile atmosphere of spin and competing claims, the truth lies.</p>
<h2>Will the pokie pre-commitment laws proposed by Andrew Wilkie MP cause clubs to go under as claimed by Jeff Kennett?</h2>
<p>Absolute nonsense. Anyone who believes what Jeff Kennett says regarding clubs going under has got rocks in their heads.</p>
<p>This is a huge industry we are talking about [football]. In the streets this week all you see is football paraphernalia, on television all you see are football reports, it is a multi million billion dollar industry.</p>
<p>If they can’t survive without exploiting vulnerable people then they need to look massively to other sources of revenue.</p>
<p>The football public love their game, they love their clubs, they will support their clubs through thick and thin. They don’t need gambling.</p>
<h2>Do clubs directly use money from pokie revenue for onfield spending or does go into a wider revenue pool?</h2>
<p>It just goes straight into the wider revenues. They might claim to use parts of it on community programs and the rest of it but that just makes it look better. That’s just revenue shifting, expense shifting. </p>
<p>It goes into the broad pool of revenue they have.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/3835/original/PIC_-_pokies_2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/3835/original/PIC_-_pokies_2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/3835/original/PIC_-_pokies_2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/3835/original/PIC_-_pokies_2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/3835/original/PIC_-_pokies_2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/3835/original/PIC_-_pokies_2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/3835/original/PIC_-_pokies_2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Campaigners opposed to the Wilkie reforms.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What are the differences between NRL clubs and AFL clubs in terms of pokie revenue and the importance of that revenue?</h2>
<p>Over the years the NRL and the clubs were synonymous. Each of the rugby league teams had their own major club and the club became a huge funder of rugby league teams. It is just the way that things developed in New South Wales.</p>
<p>They are just going to have to change the way they operate. If rugby league clubs were depending on cigarette revenues, or on other revenue sources that are regarded as unethical they’d have to change the way they operate. I don’t see what the problem is.</p>
<h2>How wide is the gap between sports and pokie betting? Can clubs/leagues have “good” betting?</h2>
<p>We all have a go on the horses and other forms of [sports] betting. But I would suggest to you that the way sports betting is being promoted – especially among young people – at the moment, that we’re are starting to create a rod for our own backs in the same way pokie machines started off from a low base and then became ravenous.</p>
<p>I would be keeping a very closely eye on sports betting and the way it is promoted.</p>
<h2>Is there a danger [for sports] that now the pokie and sports betting genie is out of the bottle, we won’t be able to put in back in, in the same way governments are finding it difficult to wean themselves off gambling revenue?</h2>
<p>Let me say, the Wilkie reforms are part of the process of getting that genie back in the bottle and what Wilkie has done is show the falsity of the argument that once the genie is out, nothing can be done about it.</p>
<p>Something is being done.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/3538/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Doughney has previously received funding from the Victorian Local Governance Association and local councils to research the social and economic impacts of poker machines. He has also appeared as an expert witness for a number of Victorian local governments in poker-machine licencing cases.</span></em></p>The Federal Government’s plan to introduce pre-commitment systems on pokie machines in order to reduce problem gambling has become a major political headache. A campaign by Clubs Australia targeting Labor…James Doughney, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Strategic Economic Studies, Victoria UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/11702011-07-01T04:12:39Z2011-07-01T04:12:39ZWant to curb problem gambling? Make pokies harder to play<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/2005/original/1416090688_b56a36f827_o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Could "antiusability" be incorporated into gaming machines?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">awwstin</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>GAMBLING IN AUSTRALIA – Addiction to gaming machines (or “pokies”) is of growing concern in Australian society. In Victoria alone there are 30,000 of these hi-tech poker machines with many in suburban venues. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.vcgr.vic.gov.au/CA256F800017E8D4/research/7A16A720C176F940CA2577810018432D?OpenDocument">Based on 2010 figures</a>, Victorian gamblers are losing around $3 billion a year on poker machines.</p>
<p>So here’s a suggestion: why not make pokies harder to play?</p>
<p>Actor Michael Caine, during a Michael Parkinson interview in which he was discussing his approach to life, once said: “Use the difficulty.” Essentially, this was a spin on the old proverb: “Necessity is the mother of invention.” </p>
<p>Caine’s maxim is also the inspirational basis of a my philosophy for design known as “antiusability”. </p>
<p>The manner in which one is compelled to use any system can alter the user’s behaviour in a positive or negative way: the design aspects of an interface can be either features or obstructions, or both. </p>
<p>The focus on difficulty in antiusability is akin to the work of <a href="http://www.egs.edu/faculty/paul-virilio/biography/">French cultural theorist Paul Virilio</a>, whose writings about technology in relation to speed and power led him, in the late 1970s, to coin the term <a href="http://www.daaq.net/folio/bibliography/b_virilio.html">“dromology”</a>, meaning the logic of speed. Similar musings made me contemplate antiusability as “the logic of difficulty”.</p>
<p>A high level of usability implies a system that is easy to learn and remember; it also suggests the design is efficient, agreeable both visually and aurally, and fun to use. It suggests that certain features should be automatic. But who should be in control at all times – the user or the machine?</p>
<h2>Making using more bruising</h2>
<p>When I first outlined the concept of antiusability at <a href="http://www.ozchi.org/2006/index.php?id=index">OZCHI 2006</a> in a presentation called <a href="http://bit.ly/avc8Sh">The Antiusability Manifesto</a>, I thought of it in terms of introducing graduated difficulty into a given system to reinforce the idea of conscious control by a user. </p>
<p>A couple of simple, common examples for this are child-proof bottle caps and speed bumps on roads. Both are safety features designed to make people think about a calibrated hurdle. </p>
<p>Online, password access systems, yes-no permission screens, parental internet controls and audio feedback alarms are further instances of this concept in action. </p>
<p>A more wacky case of antiusability is illustrated by the “crying invoice”, a Belgian company’s attempt to make customers pay on time by embedding an audio chip in bills so that weeping sounds emanate when the envelope is opened. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yVZZh1381jQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The “crying invoice” was designed to make late-paying customers feel bad.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With the crying invoice, an element of emotional complexity is introduced in the hope that feelings of empathy (on the part of the customer) will lead to less tardiness in bill payment. </p>
<p>Could this approach be developed? What if images of systems developers and their families were displayed in some kind of sentimental fashion (maybe sitting round a table together, with empty plates and hungry faces) each time one installed computer software. Conceivably, this could reduce piracy by humanising the hard-working technicians. (Then again, it could merely provide another avenue for hacks to exploit).</p>
<h2>Taking a poke at pokies</h2>
<p>It could be argued that pokies are too easy to use: insert some coins into a slot or swipe a card, push a button, perch on your stool, stare in a trance-like state at flashing lights while time seems to stand still, listen to a cacophony of sound effects and lose your hard-earned cash, or win on the odd occasion.</p>
<p>Antiusability offers the potential to transform gambling behaviour at gaming machine sites by subtly manipulating the interface between the user and the device – this can be accomplished through clever yet delicate alterations either in the gaming machine itself or in the surrounding environment. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.dtf.vic.gov.au/domino/Web_Notes/MediaRelArc02.nsf/ebfd7a9e83f839b34a2568110023b2e3/155e6271913468274a256ad9007e7613!OpenDocument">mandatory placement of clocks as an attachment to gaming machines in Victoria</a> has already been one tactic of this kind. This simple adjustment has made gamblers at least more consciously aware of how much time is passing. </p>
<p>Another more ambitious strategy would be to design pokies so that the gaming experience involves a discernible narrative, rather than simply trying to match various shapes on the screen.</p>
<p>Video games such as <a href="http://www.puzzle-quest.com/">Puzzle Quest 2</a> provide a good mix of simple, pokies-like gameplay and narrative that could be adapted for the purposes of gambling.</p>
<p>Such methods would both tax the attention-spans and boost the skill-set of players. By implementing antiusability in this way, venues would be creating at atmosphere that allows the gambler to actually enjoy the gaming experience, rather than being lulled into an addictive, unenjoyable stupor.</p>
<p>Would it work? Who knows, but it’s probably worth a flutter. </p>
<p><strong><em>This is part six of The Conversation’s Gambling in Australia series. Read the previous instalments here:</em></strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Part One: <a href="http://theconversation.com/gambling-in-australian-culture-more-than-just-a-day-at-the-races-1706">Gambling in Australian culture: more than just a day at the races</a></li>
<li>Part Two: <a href="http://theconversation.com/promotion-of-gambling-short-changes-australian-sport-and-its-fans-2013">Promotion of gambling short-changes Australian sport … and its fans</a></li>
<li>Part Three: <a href="http://theconversation.com/get-rich-or-die-trying-when-gambling-becomes-a-problem-1479">Get rich or die trying: when gambling becomes a problem</a></li>
<li>Part Four: <a href="http://theconversation.com/want-to-win-at-gambling-use-your-head-694">Want to win at gambling? Use your head</a></li>
<li>Part Five: <a href="http://theconversation.com/pokies-punters-and-taxpayers-both-lose-when-govts-and-industry-get-too-cosy-2085">Pokies punties and taxpayers both lose when govts and industry get too cosy</a></li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/1170/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Lenarcic does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>GAMBLING IN AUSTRALIA – Addiction to gaming machines (or “pokies”) is of growing concern in Australian society. In Victoria alone there are 30,000 of these hi-tech poker machines with many in suburban…John Lenarcic, Lecturer in Business IT & Logistics, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/20852011-06-29T20:56:25Z2011-06-29T20:56:25ZPokies punters and taxpayers both lose when govts and industry get too cosy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/1999/original/pokies2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=100%2C63%2C3827%2C2545&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Taxpayers were shortchanged $3billion in Victoria's ill-fated auction of licences last year.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>GAMBLING IN AUSTRALIA – How do pokies cause harm? People addicted to the pokies lose one hell of a lot of money. </p>
<p>Because they lose one hell of a lot of money they do not eat well, get into debt, lose their homes, suffer psychological trauma and do desperate things like commit crimes and suicide.</p>
<p>Last year the Productivity Commission said that problem gamblers lost 40% of total pokies losses around the country. Add those at risk of becoming problem gamblers, and the figure rises to 60%.</p>
<p>It’s just a harmless bit of fluttering fun if you listen to the poker-machine industry (the gambling corporates, clubs and pubs). It’s all a bit of entertainment.</p>
<p>Yet it is hard to think of other forms of ordinary street-level entertainment in which you can lose $1200 to $1500 an hour. That is standard for Australia’s high-intensity pokies. </p>
<p>If you spent eight hours of harmlessly entertaining fluttering, you could easily blow $10,000. Now that would be serious fun.</p>
<p>People do lose big money. People with gambling problems lose $5-7 billion plus a year, according to the Productivity Commission. </p>
<p>Their families, friends, employers and the community all suffer. It’s not really that much fun at all. In fact it’s deadly – and not in the indigenous sense of the word.</p>
<p>Sorry, that’s wrong. Worse, it’s un-Australian. Of course, the poker-machine industry is having a hairy-arsed, fun-filled, whale of a time. </p>
<p>Its state government partners are, too. Between them they pocket the $12 billion lost per year, including the $5-7 billion of harm-causing losses by problems gamblers and those at risk.</p>
<p>Let’s not mince words. The poker-machine industry and state governments profit from that harm.</p>
<p>There was a time when Victoria’s minister for pokies, Michael O’Brien, would come along to conferences on gambling harm. He would sit and listen earnestly. He would criticise former ministers for pokies for not doing enough for problem gamblers.</p>
<p>His less squeamish colleagues would be on the phone to gambling researchers (including this one) hoping for tid-bits of pokies muck to rake.</p>
<p>Now, of course, shoulder to shoulder with their State mates around the country they are trying to stop the Wilkie mandatory pre-commitment scheme. It’s untested. It won’t work. It will hit the pokies industry, particularly pubs and clubs.</p>
<p>Michael O’Brien chips in that Victoria’s voluntary scheme and other problem-gambling measures are the best in the country. What’s more, they won’t materially affect the pubs and clubs.</p>
<p>Sorry? Run that by me again, as they say. You can do something about the $5 billion-plus harm-causing losses by problem gamblers without reducing industry revenues and pokies taxes? Magic puddings all round!</p>
<p>Of course, the ritual incantations by state governments against the Wilkie plan are fatuous nonsense, and they know it. </p>
<p>If they weren’t so cheek by jowl with the pokies industry they might instead be campaigning for tax redistribution from the Commonwealth to compensate for the hit to their budgets. Instead, they say, they will peddle their wretchedly bad argumentation all the way to the High Court.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Victoria’s Auditor-General tabled a <a href="http://www.audit.vic.gov.au/reports_and_publications/latest_reports/2010-11/20110629_electronic_gaming.aspx">report</a> in Victorian Parliament yesterday slamming last year’s auction of poker-machine licences. Most of these licences were snaffled by gambling’s big end of town. </p>
<p>The Bruce Mathieson’s ALH Group joint venture with Woolworths picked up one-third, ironically in an auction purported to increase competition after the Tabcorp-Tattersall’s duopoly expires next year.</p>
<p>The upshot was that the licences for each of Victoria’s 27,000 machines, which generate about $2.7 billion revenue per year, sold for an average of $37,000. </p>
<p>That is, the average revenue generated by each machine – about $100,000 per annum – could cover its licence price in about four months and 13 days. </p>
<p>In the words of the Auditor General: “The revenue obtained from the sale of the entitlements was around $3 billion less than the assessed fair market value of these assets [about $4.1 billion]. </p>
<p>"As a result of this very significant difference, the allocation largely failed to meet its intended financial outcome of capturing a greater share of the industry’s supernormal profits … Large venue operators, rather than the community, are the beneficiaries of this windfall gain … </p>
<p>"The industry paid $980 million for the right to operate EGMs over a ten-year period. This is equivalent to around a third of the total revenue generated by EGMs in a single year, and a quarter of the estimated fair market values of the entitlements. We valued the EGM entitlements in the range of $3.7 billion to $4.5 billion, with a mid-point of $4.1 billion.”</p>
<p>That just about says it all, except for one thing. Juxtapose the phrase ‘supernormal profits’ with the down-to-earth, back-slapping clubbiness of the industry’s TV and other ads.</p>
<p>What did Matthew’s gospel say? “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves.”</p>
<p><strong><em>This is part five of The Conversation’s Gambling in Australia series. Read part one: <a href="http://theconversation.com/gambling-in-australian-culture-more-than-just-a-day-at-the-races-1706">Gambling in Australian culture: more than just a day at the races</a>; part two: <a href="http://theconversation.com/promotion-of-gambling-short-changes-australian-sport-and-its-fans-2013">Promotion of gambling short-changes Australian sport … and its fans</a>; part three: <a href="http://theconversation.com/get-rich-or-die-trying-when-gambling-becomes-a-problem-1479">Get rich or die trying: when gambling becomes a problem</a>; and part four: <a href="http://theconversation.com/want-to-win-at-gambling-use-your-head-694">Want to win at gambling? Use your head</a></em>.</strong></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/2085/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Doughney has previously received funding from the Victorian Local Governance Association and local councils to research the social and economic impacts of poker machines. He has also appeared as an expert witness for a number of Victorian local governments in poker-machine licencing cases.</span></em></p>GAMBLING IN AUSTRALIA – How do pokies cause harm? People addicted to the pokies lose one hell of a lot of money. Because they lose one hell of a lot of money they do not eat well, get into debt, lose their…James Doughney, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Strategic Economic Studies, Victoria UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/6942011-06-29T03:07:10Z2011-06-29T03:07:10ZWant to win at gambling? Use your head<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/1944/original/head.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C76%2C500%2C350&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">When you know the numbers, things get a whole lot easier.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Roberto Bouza</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>GAMBLING IN AUSTRALIA – Some say “punting is a mug’s game”. But is this always true, or can an astute gambler make long-term profits?</p>
<p>Certainly not from casino games. Casinos make profits by paying less than they should on winning bets. A roulette wheel has 37 numbers, so a gambler who bets a dollar has a 1/37 chance of winning and should receive back $37 on a winning number. </p>
<p>But the casino pays only $36. </p>
<p>On average, a gambler loses $1 for every $37 they bet: a loss of 2.7%. </p>
<p>This is the cost of playing the game and it’s the profit the casino makes often called the “house percentage”. </p>
<h2>Houses of all sizes</h2>
<p>For casino games such as roulette, Keno and poker machines, the house percentage can be calculated mathematically, and in spite of many proposed betting systems, is an immutable and unchangeable number. No strategy can be used by the punter to make the game profitable.</p>
<p>While gamblers may experience short-term lucky streaks, in the long run they will lose this predetermined percentage of their wagers. But a sensible casino gambler should at least be familiar with the house percentages:</p>
<p>Betting the win line at craps at 1.4%, or red or black at roulette at 2.7%, might be a better option than Keno or Lotto with a house percentage of over 40%. </p>
<p>Let’s be clear here: for every $100 bet through Tattslotto or Powerball, the “house” only pays out $60, keeping $40 for itself.</p>
<p>But sports betting is different. </p>
<p>In a horse race, the chance of winning (and hence the price for a winning bet) is determined subjectively, either by the bookmaker or by the weight of money invested by the public. </p>
<p>If 20% of the amount a bookmaker takes on a race is for the favourite, the public is effectively estimating that particular horse’s chance of winning at one in five. But the bookmaker might set the horse’s winning price at $4.50 (for every $1 bet, the punter gets $4.50 back), giving the bookie a house percentage of 10%. </p>
<p>But a trainer, or jockey with inside knowledge (or statistician with a mathematical model based on past data), may estimate this same horse’s chances at one in three. If the savvy punter is correct, then for every $3 bet they average $4.50 return. </p>
<p>A logical punter looks for value – bets that pay more than a fair price as determined by their true probability of winning. There are several reasons why sports betting lends itself to punters seeking value bets.</p>
<h2>A sporting chance</h2>
<p>In general, more outcomes in a game allow for a higher house percentage. With two even outcomes (betting on a head or tail with a single coin toss, say), a fair price would be $2. </p>
<p>The operator might be able to pay out as little $1.90, giving a house percentage of 5%, but anything less than this would probably see little interest from gamblers. </p>
<p>But a Keno game with 20 million outcomes might only pay $1 million for a winning $1 bet, rather than a fair $20,000,000. A payout of $1 million gives a staggering house percentage of 95%. </p>
<p>Traditionally, sports betting was restricted to horse, harness and dog racing – events with several outcomes that allowed house percentages of around 15%-20%. </p>
<p>With the extension into many other team and individual sports, betting on which of the two participants would win reduced a bookmaker’s take to as little as 3%-4%.</p>
<p>Competition reduces this further. Only the state-run totalisator (an automated system which like Tattslotto, determined the winning prices after the event, thus always ensuring the legislated house percentage), and a handful of on-course bookmakers were originally allowed to offer bets on horse racing, whereas countless internet operators now compete.</p>
<p>Betfair even allows punters to bet against each other, effectively creating millions of “bookmakers”. </p>
<h2>Head or heart</h2>
<p>Many sports punters bet with their hearts, not their heads. This reduces the prices of popular players or teams, thereby increasing the price of their opponents. The low margins and extensive competition even allow punters to sometimes find arbitrage opportunities (where betting on both sides with different bookmakers allows a profit whoever wins). </p>
<p>To overcome their heart, and lack of inside knowledge, many mathematicians create mathematical and statistical models based on past data and results to predict the chances of sports outcomes. They prove the veracity of their models by testing (either on past data or in real time) whether they would profit if the predictions were used for betting.</p>
<p>Academics call the ability to show a profit the “inefficiency of betting markets”, and there are many papers to suggest sports markets are inefficient. Of course the more successful have a vested interest in keeping their methods to themselves and may not publicise their results. </p>
<p>Astute punters can make sports betting profitable in the long term. But the profits made by the plethora of sports bookmakers indicate that most sports punters are not that astute.</p>
<p><strong><em>This is part four of The Conversation’s Gambling in Australia series. Read part one: <a href="http://theconversation.com/gambling-in-australian-culture-more-than-just-a-day-at-the-races-1706">Gambling in Australian culture: more than just a day at the races</a>; part two: <a href="http://theconversation.com/promotion-of-gambling-short-changes-australian-sport-and-its-fans-2013">Promotion of gambling short-changes Australian sport … and its fans</a>; and part three: <a href="http://theconversation.com/get-rich-or-die-trying-when-gambling-becomes-a-problem-1479">Get rich or die trying: when gambling becomes a problem</a></em>.</strong></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/694/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Clarke provides AFL football predictions to Smartgambler.com.au who use the predictions in a package sold to punters.</span></em></p>GAMBLING IN AUSTRALIA – Some say “punting is a mug’s game”. But is this always true, or can an astute gambler make long-term profits? Certainly not from casino games. Casinos make profits by paying less…Stephen Clarke, Professor of Statistics, Swinburne University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/14792011-06-28T21:01:56Z2011-06-28T21:01:56ZGet rich or die trying: when gambling becomes a problem<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/1910/original/aapone-20040503000012270378-nsw_clubs-original.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sadly, there's no magic button to stop excessive gambling.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mick Tsikas/AAPimage</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>GAMBLING IN AUSTRALIA – Why do some people develop gambling addictions while others can dabble for years at the pokies or the track without issue?</p>
<p>The Productivity Commission’s <a href="http://www.pc.gov.au/projects/inquiry/gambling-2009/report">2010 report on gambling</a> estimates more than 100,000 people in Australia suffer from severe gambling problems. This is in line with the US and Canada, where similar gambling opportunities are available. </p>
<p>Our understanding of gambling addiction has advanced rapidly in recent years. Older <a href="http://www.gamblib.org/catalogue/article/psychodynamics-and-psychology-gambling-gamblers-mi/">Freudian conceptions of gambling</a> problems – essentially, that they stem from a repressed sexual impulse or a desire to “punish” oneself – are yielding to more likely social explanations. </p>
<p>A relatively new theory, from the early 2000s, the <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16374657">Four Es</a>, identifies four psychological factors that put people at increased risk of becoming a problem gambler: esteem, excitement, excess and escape. This theory sheds some light on the psychological make-up of the problem gambler; so let’s look at these points one by one.</p>
<h2>1) Esteem</h2>
<p>Problem gamblers are likely to have low self-esteem and a sense of self-loathing.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1990/09/09/obituaries/robert-l-custer-63-psychiatrist-who-led-treatment-of-gamblers.html">Robert L. Custer</a>, the American psychiatrist who was instrumental in getting “Disordered Gambling” recognised as a psychiatric disorder in 1980, <a href="http://www.getcited.org/pub/102381667">described</a> the pathological gambler as someone who wants to “relieve some kind of psychic pain”. </p>
<p>Whether the problem gambler wins or loses doesn’t matter, he said – it’s being in the game that relieves the pain. Gambling eases the burden of self-loathing and allows the people betting to engage in a fantasy world of imagined wins, financial success and social acceptance. </p>
<p>People who agree with <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16374657">survey questions</a> such as “the things I say and do are foolish” and “I am miserable to be around” are much more likely than others to suffer from gambling problems. </p>
<p>Ironically, the burden of gambling debt ultimately fuels players’ low opinions of themself.</p>
<h2>2) Excitement</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16374657">Research shows</a> people with gambling problems are more likely than others to become bored with day-to-day life. The wins of gambling are exciting and the “action” of play makes it attractive to problem gamblers.</p>
<h2>3) Excess</h2>
<p>Problem gamblers tend to act without thinking about the long-term consequences, and this mindlessness extends to other areas of their lives. </p>
<p>They often <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/1996-03589-006">drink too much, smoke too much and eat too much</a>.</p>
<p>Young men are much more likely to engage in risky gambling than either women or older males. A <a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/664191012606m2u2/">recent small study</a> of gambling among Sydney-area adolescents, for example, showed 6.7% (or 17 students) had gambling problems, and all were boys. This gender difference may be attributable to the fact young men are <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16891992">generally more impulsive</a>, in part because of higher levels of testosterone.</p>
<p>Although most of us can be described as “cognitive misers” – relying on mental shortcuts to solve everyday decisions – problem gamblers are especially unable or unwilling to control behaviour they know is harmful to themselves. </p>
<p>They’re more likely to agree with survey statements such as “I usually get into trouble because I don’t stop to think”. Moreover, agreement with these statements on mindlessness <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17245659">predicts</a> increases in people’s gambling problems over time.</p>
<h2>4) Escape</h2>
<p>None of these psychological risks for gambling problems exists on its own – the need for escape may be the “worm at the core” of all these factors. </p>
<p>Most problem gamblers are conscious gambling is a convenient escape from the troubles that plague their lives – self loathing, boredom and social isolation. </p>
<p>Because gambling is an immediate relief from these negative feelings, problem gamblers are unwilling to inhibit their gambling: even when they know it will cause them more problems in the future. Gambling is a temporary escape from negative self-reflection. </p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20143259">one of our experiments</a>, gamblers were asked to describe the things they didn’t like about themselves in a private audio recording. Then they played a poker machine (sometimes called “slot machines”, “fruit machines” or “pokies”).</p>
<p>When compared with a controlled condition where participants made no recording, people who had described themselves negatively bet faster, bet for longer and made larger bets, on average, during play. </p>
<p>So negative self-reflection has a direct impact on gambling behaviour, increasing gambling intensity as a way of escaping these intrusive negative feelings.</p>
<h2>Gambling and the self</h2>
<p>Gambling has short-term benefits and long-term costs. Except for a few high skill games, such as card-games and racing, gambling invariably produces long-term losses. Money is stolen, people are lied to, and savings are wasted in the pursuit of an unattainable dream. </p>
<p>Perhaps the best hope for rehabilitation of problem gamblers is for them to find a new and more productive means of attaining personal acceptance and social approval.</p>
<p>People with gambling problems should benefit from engaging in activities they enjoyed prior to their gambling, and connecting with people who give them a sense of acceptance. </p>
<p>In fact, the active ingredient of self-help groups, such as <a href="http://www.gansw.org.au/">Gamblers Anonymous</a>, may provide the sense of acceptance and approval that gambling once gave. But each person must work out for themselves which activities provide them with a greater sense of wellbeing. </p>
<p><strong><em>This is part three of The Conversation’s Gambling in Australia Series. Read part one: <a href="http://theconversation.com/gambling-in-australian-culture-more-than-just-a-day-at-the-races-1706">Gambling in Australian culture: more than just a day at the races</a>; and part two: <a href="http://theconversation.com/promotion-of-gambling-short-changes-australian-sport-and-its-fans-2013">Promotion of gambling short-changes Australian sport … and its fans</a>.</em></strong></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/1479/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Rockloff has received funding from the Victorian and Queensland Governments.</span></em></p>GAMBLING IN AUSTRALIA – Why do some people develop gambling addictions while others can dabble for years at the pokies or the track without issue? The Productivity Commission’s 2010 report on gambling…Matthew Rockloff, Deputy Director, Institute for Health and Social Science Research, CQUniversity AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/20132011-06-28T04:22:06Z2011-06-28T04:22:06ZPromotion of gambling short-changes Australian sport … and its fans<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/1939/original/aapone-20110626000327637888-afl_carlton_wc_eagles-original.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some sporting organisations have called for veto powers on "exotic" betting.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joe Castro/AAPimage</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>GAMBLING IN AUSTRALIA – Australians spend about $20 billion every year gambling. This level of expenditure is, according to The Economist, the <a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/05/gambling">highest in the world</a> on a per capita basis. </p>
<p>Some would argue this reflects Australian’s love of a bet. It’s more likely that what it reflects is Australia’s highly accessible gambling markets.</p>
<p>Australia’s 200,000 poker machines consume close to 60% of the gambling dollar. A long way down the list, but catching up fast, is sports betting, which in 2008-09 was <a href="http://www.pc.gov.au/projects/inquiry/gambling-2009/report">estimated by the Productivity Commission</a> to constitute about 1.2% of Australia’s gambling market – $230 million in expenditure.</p>
<p>Most wagering is still on horses. But the sound and fury around sports betting has grown fast, and it’s now worth closer to $400 million. </p>
<p>This rapid growth was the <a href="http://www.landers.com.au/Publications/Archive/Publicationdetail/tabid/338/ArticleID/211/Default.aspx">result of a successful challenge</a> against WA legislation by Betfair, a betting exchange operator, half owned by Packer interests and licensed in Tasmania. </p>
<p>In 2008, the High Court determined it was unconstitutional to prohibit interstate operations by such gambling operators. This meant that online gambling operators licensed in small jurisdictions (notably the Northern Territory) could expand their operations into states where they were not licensed. </p>
<p>The result was a scramble for market share, utilising aggressive sponsorship and advertising, including sports sponsorship and deals with governing bodies. </p>
<h2>A different style of bet</h2>
<p>This growth is not uncontroversial. Earlier this month, sporting organisations <a href="http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-sport/sports-set-to-clamp-down-on-exotic-bets-20110608-1fs6c.html">called for veto powers</a> on some types of “exotic” or “spot” bets, such as how many no-balls might be bowled in a particular over during a cricket match. </p>
<p>These types of bets are easily corruptible, and have already lead to scandals in international cricket and in Australia, the NRL. </p>
<p>A couple of weeks before that, state and federal gambling Ministers declared that unless in-call promotion of odds ceased within 12 months, <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/05/27/3228975.htm?site=centralvic">legislation banning it would be introduced.</a> Independent Senator Nick Xenophon has <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/lift-your-game-on-pokies-trio-urges-20110619-1ga53.html">already proposed legislation</a> covering both practices.</p>
<h2>Clearing up sport</h2>
<p>Problems with sports betting are at least two-fold. The first area of concern relates to the possibility of corruption, damaging a sport’s integrity and leading to a loss of confidence among fans and participants. </p>
<p>The impact of such scandals has been profound in some sports, notably international cricket, but also, in Australia, with the NRL. </p>
<p>Players’ reputations are trashed, and the sport’s administrators have to play catch-up to demonstrate to the fans that corruption has been eliminated. </p>
<p>But doubts often remain, which can significantly damage the enjoyment previously experienced by those who love their particular game.</p>
<p>Perhaps more importantly from a public health perspective is how the promotion of sports betting can influence people to look on it as a necessary element of their enjoyment of the game, normalising gambling via its connection with sporting heroes and highly entertaining elite sport. </p>
<h2>It’s all about the money</h2>
<p>Professional sporting codes present massive marketing opportunities. The TV rights for AFL <a href="http://www.news.com.au/business/afl-announces-1bn-tv-rights-deal/story-e6frfm1i-1226046325694">were recently sold</a> for a record $1.25 billion, an amount that underscores the importance of the code to the marketing strategy of many significant companies.</p>
<p>Some sports bodies have defended gambling sponsorship on the basis that it permits the code to scrutinise bookmaker’s accounts and detect dubious patterns of betting (reflecting some corruptly-obtained inside information) and bets made by prescribed individuals (players, officials, and so on). </p>
<p>Of course, this information could be readily obtained via legislation without entering into a commercial partnership. Indeed, sports could also be provided with a legislatively prescribed share of gambling’s proceeds, without sponsorship or marketing being involved.</p>
<p>At present, sports betting is probably not providing a vast stream of revenue to sporting codes. It’s estimated that commercial “partnerships” between the AFL and gambling operators are worth between $2 and $3 million to the league itself. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, some AFL and NRL clubs promote sports betting heavily, with logos adorning their guernseys, links on their websites to bookies, and frequent and unavoidable advertising on TV, radio and at the grounds. </p>
<p>Victorian AFL clubs alone made $30million from poker machine operations in 2009-10, and changes to the regulatory system in Victoria mean that will grow to more than $63 million by 2012-13. </p>
<p>Sports betting will have to grow significantly to match that. But the impact it may have on the emerging generation of sports fans will be profound. </p>
<p>The benefits are negligible; the costs are likely to be very high. </p>
<p><strong><em>This is part two of The Conversation’s Gambling in Australia series. Read part one here: <a href="http://theconversation.com/gambling-in-australian-culture-more-than-just-a-day-at-the-races-1706">Gambling in Australian culture: more than just a day at the races</a>.</em></strong></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/2013/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles Livingstone receives funding from the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth) to conduct preliminary research into the level of funding received by organised sport in Victoria from gambling interests.</span></em></p>GAMBLING IN AUSTRALIA – Australians spend about $20 billion every year gambling. This level of expenditure is, according to The Economist, the highest in the world on a per capita basis. Some would argue…Charles Livingstone, Senior Lecturer, Global Health and Society, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/17062011-06-27T04:28:10Z2011-06-27T04:28:10ZGambling in Australian culture: more than just a day at the races<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/1875/original/aapone-20091103000209227899-topshots-racing-aus-original.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Betting can be fun, but it's not worth losing your shirt over.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">William West/AFP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>GAMBLING IN AUSTRALIA – The idea that Australians love to gamble is so firmly established that we rarely pause to question it. </p>
<p>This is true whether we picture Chinese and British “diggers” passing time on the goldfields, the sacred ritual of two-up games on Anzac Day or <a href="http://www.nma.gov.au/collections/pharlaps_heart/">Phar Lap’s heart</a> and the “race that stops the nation”.</p>
<p>Such questioning is timely as <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/05/06/3209525.htm">new legislation is proposed</a> to regulate the way we gamble on electronic gaming machines (or pokies) and to restrict how far the interests of gambling sponsors can intrude into sports journalism. </p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.holisticpage.com.au/WannaBet_TimCostelloAndRoyceMillar%7C9781865083711">Wanna Bet?</a>, co-authored with Royce Millar in 2000, anti-pokie campaigner Tim Costello noted that it’s almost obligatory to preface one’s critical comments on gambling with words to the effect of: “Like every Australian, I enjoy a bet on the Melbourne Cup …” </p>
<p>A recent (as yet unpublished) pilot study I conducted on Melbourne Cup Day celebrations in the workplace suggests that what is most unique about gambling in Australian culture is not that we gamble more than others but the social force of the claim that “Australians love to gamble”. </p>
<p>Even though most of the 23 respondents (aged between 24 and 74) were serial attendees of Melbourne Cup Day celebrations in the workplace, 39% only ever gambled on Melbourne Cup Day sweepstakes and none described themself as “regular” gambler. </p>
<p>In spite of this, several spoke of the important role of Melbourne Cup Day celebrations in creating a sense of community in the workplace and expressing a sense of national belonging. </p>
<p>While the belief that Australians love to gamble persists even for those who rarely gamble in everyday life, <a href="http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415996778/">comparative international research</a> indicates that the development of gambling in Australia parallels that in other nations where policies of de-regulation were implemented as part of a broader reorganisation of markets and social institutions commonly termed “neo-liberalism”. </p>
<p>To understand the cultural shift from strictly regulated legal gambling, through a deregulated era of pokies in every suburban pub, to the current situation where opponents of pokie reforms are decrying the return of a Nanny State, we need to reconsider some common beliefs about problem gambling. </p>
<h2>Problem gambling</h2>
<p>The recognition of “<a href="http://abs.sagepub.com/content/51/1/33.abstract">pathological gambling</a>” by the <a href="http://www.psych.org/MainMenu/Research/DSMIV/DSMIVTR/DSMIVvsDSMIVTR/SummaryofTextChangesInDSMIVTR/ImpulseControlDisorders.aspx">American Psychiatric Association</a> in the late 1980s saw a line drawn between two kinds of gamblers: a majority of gamblers who play “recreationally” and a small minority of “problem” gamblers who cause problems for themselves and significant others in the workplace and the family. </p>
<p>The idea of the problem gambler, understood as a dysfunctional consumer able to be weeded out from gambling venues, has since functioned as a convenient truth for state governments dependent on pokie taxes and industry stakeholders able to blame problems related to their products on a pre-existing condition of a minority of players. </p>
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<p>This consensus on problem gambling has been threatened by <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2011/s3245356.htm">the proposed Wilkie reforms</a> to make pokies safer. </p>
<p>These respond to the <a href="http://www.pc.gov.au/projects/inquiry/gambling-2009/report">2010 Productivity Commission’s recognition</a> of the link between destructive gambling and the accessibility of “new generation pokies”, which induce disturbingly rapid expenditure. Hotels and clubs are resisting a shift from the self-exclusion of problem gamblers to the regulation of all players on public health and consumer protection grounds. </p>
<p>Beer coasters that seem to propose that <a href="http://www.its-unaustralian.com.au/JoinUs.aspx">problem gamblers are “un-Australian”</a> have been placed in venues. The ItsUnAustralian.com.au campaign warns: “They want to treat ordinary punters as problem gamblers. But you didn’t vote for it and you don’t have to put up with it.”</p>
<p>Yet <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9156.html">there’s nothing particularly Australian</a> about the rapid growth of pokies in most Australian states over the past two decades. </p>
<p>Tim Freedman, the singer and songwriter behind The Whitlams’ hit single Blow Up the Pokies (see above), puts the case that pokies’ invasion of the cultural space of the pub killed the live music scene that generated such iconic Australian bands as Cold Chisel and Midnight Oil.</p>
<h2>Poker</h2>
<p>A cultural study of gambling in Australia would be incomplete without mentioning Joe Hachem (see below), winner of the 2005 World Poker Series Tournament in Las Vegas.</p>
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<p>This great moment in Australian gambling is part of a global craze; “poker nights” now compete for punters with pokie lounges in suburban pubs. </p>
<p>As poker became a metaphor and set of techniques for success in neo-liberal societies in the period before the global financial crisis, Hachem became a local celebrity. His reality television series, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Poker_Star">The Poker Star</a>, depicts poker more as a way of life than a recreational pastime. </p>
<p>In 2011, we are as likely to encounter a typical Australian gambler at a computer terminal at work or at home playing poker on an overseas website with people from all over the world and dreaming of one day going professional, as punting on a racetrack or playing a pokie machine. </p>
<p>Regardless of the form it takes, gambling clearly poses some unique challenges for businesses, regulators and consumers. </p>
<p>The task is to establish more or less safe and ethical ways to participate in the everyday games of sport, leisure, entertainment, resort tourism and finance to which gambling has become increasingly central. </p>
<p><em><strong>This is part one of The Conversation’s Gambling in Australia series. Read part two tomorrow.</strong></em></p>
<p><strong><em>Is gambling an integral part of Australian culture? Why?/ Why not? Leave your comments below.</em></strong></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/1706/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fiona Nicoll does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>GAMBLING IN AUSTRALIA – The idea that Australians love to gamble is so firmly established that we rarely pause to question it. This is true whether we picture Chinese and British “diggers” passing time…Fiona Nicoll, Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.