“Most customers are consenting adults happy to be entertained, and are educated enough to know what their odds are,” Hill said, adding his club’s machines are programmed to cost gamblers an average 8 cents of every dollar played.
Francis Markham, who conducts gambling research at the Australian National University in Canberra, said lobbying by industry interests was slowing the reform movement.
“There’s a correlation between a spike in political donations from these groups just when there’s more talk about gambling reform,” said Markham. “Neither of the major parties are willing to countenance reform and for the minor ones their drive for change appears politically latent.”
Seselja, the former gambling addict, now gives talks in the clubs where she sometimes lost her monthly salary in a couple of hours.
“We haven’t been protected from this obvious, preventable harm by the government,” she said. “To market it as harmless fun and entertainment, when it’s been totally designed to addict an individual and take all of their money, is obscene.”
—With assistance from Angus Whitley.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.