How to end pokies addictionsFormer pokies addict Scott Eagar offers an alternative viewpoint to fighting problem gambling amongst the talk of pokies legislation and pre-commitment: kill the feature option.
Gambling
Offended by ‘nanny state’, Coalition wants more censorship on gambling
The Coalition has proposed greater internet censorship as part of its counter-proposals on gambling reform. The US experience shows it doesn’t work.
When it comes to pokies, beware of who you stand with
Pokies reform appears to have shifted slightly in the government’s and Andrew Wilkie’s favour, mainly because opponents have overplayed their hands.
The Power Index 
Meet Australia’s gambling goliath
If you’re going to talk power in sport, you’ve got to talk gambling. And if you’re going to talk gambling, then you need to address the 800-pound gorilla in the gaming room, Tabcorp. Tom Cowie profiles its CEO David Attenborough.
Pokies lobby lets the cat out of the bag
Regardless of the merits of the Deutsch Bank report, the cat’s out of the bag now when it comes to the real cost of pokies reform, writes Charles Livingstone.
Crikey Says: Packer gets lippy
Australian prime ministers have been bullied and brutalised by men whose name is Packer for decades.
Your Say: Daily Mail readers' feedback: The live animal trade
Crikey readers have their say.
Last Bets: a gambling palace through the dealer’s eyes
Boozed-up punters are regular fixtures on the gaming room floor despite laws banning gambling while drunk. But dealers say training is inadequate, writes student journalist Esther Ooi.
Last Bets: which brand of poker machine are you?
Poker machine themes play an important part in conditioning players to gamble and there are millions of dollars being invested by the big companies every year to find the next big thing. So which brand of machine suits you?
Last Bets: will changing the law fix the fixes?
So Sports Minister Mark Arbib thinks nationwide 10-year jail terms for anybody involved in match fixing will solve what the Sydney Morning Herald described this morning as “the biggest threat to sport since doping”? Good luck.
Your Say: Daily Mail readers' feedback: Carbon tax, celebrities and climate change
Correction: Brenden Hills, The Sunday Telegraph, writes: Re. “Tips and rumours” (yesterday, item 8). Crikey published: “The co-author of the Sunday Telegraph’s “Carbon” Cate Blanchett beat-up, Brenden Hills, is fondly remembered by Labor advisers for an amusing performance during the NSW state election campaign. Spies say Hills ventured down to Pitt Street’s Civic Hotel one […]
Law: Why Clubs Australia loves Asians
The new “It’s un-Australian” campaign website funded by Clubs Australia to fight pokies laws comes translated in Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean. Why are Asian communities so caught up in gambling and will this campaign slow it down? Benjamin Law investigates.
The science of pokies make them a special kind of harm creation
Pokies and the large networked system within which they operate are extremely effective at modifying what sociologists call the ‘agency’ of many people, affecting the basis on which they utilise their rational capacity, writes Charles Livingstone.
Wilkie, the pokies and the need to Do Something
Not for Andrew Wilkie: this business of establishing the Government’s fiscal position and identifying the impact of election commitments on the Budget before entering substantive negotiations with the major parties.
How to fix a World Cup match
Soccer (or “football” to you purists) is rife with match fixing, and author Declan Hill has put his life at risk exposing it. He explains how the games are rigged and why the World Cup is a fertile field for bribery and buy-outs to flourish.
Hit me! Why nearly winning is just as addictive
It’s much harder to walk away from the pokies when you only just miss out, because near-misses raise activity in the same area of the brain as winning. And pokie machine makers know it.
AFL betting … and a sledgehammer to crush walnuts
The AFL again has reached for its sledgehammer in handing out hefty penalties to six AFL figures caught betting on matches. Perhaps the League should save the leg-irons and manacles for the time they catch out some real crooks.
Lotto promotion has Anzac Day by the balls
Anzac Day has been sold out by the NSW Lotteries with a “Marching On” OZ Lotto promotion — and the RSL says it’s “perfectly legal”.
Betting Market Friday: Bookies go to sleep, Sportsbet goes berko
There was no change to the Federal Election betting odds for either party from Centerbet, IASbet or Sportingbet this week — but Sportsbet’s odds on a Coalition victory suddenly jumped from $3.80 to a whopping $4.70, reports Possum Comitatus.
Betting Market Friday: Coalition drops under $4
Almost all of Australia’s betting agencies have shortened their odds on the Coalition winning the next election this week, reports Possum Comitatus, with most now running below $4
Taking a punt on the polls
Crikey’s Pollytics blog launches a new weekly feature: Betting Market Friday, doing nerdy number things with the federal election prices from Centrebet, IASbet, Sportingbet and Betfair.
Online poker: where everyone’s a loser
A study of online poker games has found that the more hands a player wins, the less money they’re likely to take home. Sociologists explain why.
Leave pokies alone!
Pokie machines and the venues that operate them have been coming under heavy fire from the media, VCAT and the Productivity Commission lately. But why should bureaucrats and pundits get to dictate how Australians spend their leisure dollars? asks Richard Allsop.
Taking a punt on Liberal leadership
The Sportingbet odds between Malcolm Turnbull and Joe Hockey leading the Libs to the next Federal Election have narrowed today, with Turnbull moving up to $2.25 from $2.00, while Hockey sits on $2.35. Paying out at $4.25, Tony Abbott might just be worth a tipple.
With Roger Corbett, it’s a question of character
Roger Corbett’s Christian values didn’t appear to count for much when the opportunity presented for Woolies to leap into the pokies business. Why is the anti-gambling Salvation Army associated with someone who actively supports pokies?
