Pokies……. calling all gamblers
Is there anything in the world dumber than slot machines for gambling?
An industry which creates nothing - apart from compulsive gamblers – and employs very few people. Money flows from the pockets of many into those of very few – the machine operators and landlords in particular since these insidious machines seem to all be placed in drinking establishments.
Pokie machines seem to hook women and Polynesians most easily and once hooked, these poor pathological gamblers will gamble everything away before they get to the stage of seeking help, or even worse commit suicide, a common answer for compulsive gamblers.
There is considerable anecdotal evidence of Polynesians gambling on pokies to try and raise money for their churches!
Even at the same time, the pieces of shit who are happy to live off the misery of others – the machine owners – often feel that they are not getting a large enough slice of the action and have resorted to illegal means to increase their income; Brent Todd and the Rescue Helicopter/pokie scam are just a couple.
The income from pokies has increased by over 25% each year for the past several years now, and while the government is raking in several hundred million dollars annually from the machines, there is no likelihood of them being banned. Last year, thanks to slightly tougher measures, turnover actually fell a percentage pint or two, but the problem isn't going away.
What is it that hooks people into this form of gambling?
There seem to be several things at work in the case of these very cunningly designed machines.
Firstly, it is necessary to recognise that addiction to gambling is entirely different to other forms of addiction as there is no substance entering the body as with alcoholism , drug addiction etc. The brain becomes addicted to chemicals which it produces itself, much in the same way that adrenaline junkies have to keep taking on more and more risky behaviour.
Secondly, there is quite clearly documented evidence that people can become addicted to video/computer games. Ever since the introduction of "Space Invaders" some twenty five years ago, there have been children and young people who have gotten addicted to playing them.
Thirdly, there seems to be something hypnotic in the action of pokies. Fruit/slot machines have been around since the days of Al Capone and no doubt some smart cookie in those days realised that there is something about the spinning reels which draws those people with a tendency to compulsive behaviour. How else can we explain that with all the graphics, electronics and computer controlled hardware available, the modern electronic pokie still uses the imagery of spinning reels?
Fourthly, compulsive gamblers are born, not made. That is clearly the case, or everyone who played the pokies regularly would become addicted to them, and there are clearly people out there who enjoy having a flutter on the pokies on a regular basis, but who will never become addicted and who never display compulsive behaviour (chasing losses, trying to double up on winnings etc). The 24 hour availability and constant action of pokies is a lot more attractive to people than having to wait for a bingo game to start or for the next race to run at the TAB.
Another small side issue is the way that the modern trend in pokies seems to have moved from the 20c unit when they first came in, to now using 1 and 2 cent units. This clever ploy seems to enable gamblers to think that they aren’t spending much money, but when you can bet up to (and over) 100 units on EACH spin of the reels, gamblers can be spending over $2 for each and every time they press a button. Since it takes around 2-3 seconds for a cycle of a pokie to run, a gambler can be spending up to $60 per MINUTE.
Taking money from gamblers is a legal, if not terribly honest way, way of making money which has been around for hundreds of years, but nobody had managed to design a foolproof way of parting fools from their money. Craps is somewhat slow, albeit with good sized units, the margins in blackjack are too small to ever be effective, nobody knows how to play baccarat, roulette is effective but very very slow and tai-sai seems to be of interest to Asians only. Poker has been around for a very long time, but will always be a minority game due to its complexity (it is the only form of gambling aside from liar dice where you can bullshit your way to a win)
So along come the pokies, nowadays with their own weird brand of musical jingles which again are no doubt designed to trigger some particular emotion within the players.
We have always had compulsive gamblers in New Zealand, and you don’t need to have a university research project submitted to tell you that we have had an astronomical increase in them since the explosion of pokies over the past 10-15 years.
The real shame of the whole thing is that those people who are least able to afford to play on the idiotic machines are those who play them the most – check the numbers of pokies in Manukau City compared to Remuera, St Heliers, Epsom and Glendowie.
Just a quick example from Manurewa. There are over 200 pokies in a 200m radius of Manurewa’s town centre. These machines operate for 14 hours daily and I reckon that the machines are occupied for about 60% of the time, 7 days a week. Going on an average of $1 per rotation of the cycle, with a cycle taking 3 seconds, this means that these 200 machines are having gross bets of $2,000,000 per DAY. Of this, some 60% is returned to the gambler, meaning that $5MILLION is taken out of the Manurewa economy each week.
If that is not plain insanity, I would like someone to tell me what is – particularly given that Manurewa is one of the poorest areas in the entire country.
Is it any wonder that South Auckland foodbanks have the highest turnover in NZ when a very high percentage of players are beneficiaries? And beneficiaries they most assuredly are, as I can assure you that the highest turnover days – with queues of people waiting for an empty machine to play – are those days on which beneficiaries are paid (paid?)
If you have a spare hour one Tuesday or Thursday, come to Manurewa and wander through the carparks and bars in the town centre. You will see the kids of these pathological gamblers sitting in cars awaiting their parents’ money running out, and in the bars, you will see the hypnotised stares of the gamblers, nerves stretched to breaking point as their money runs low, waiting for the elusive payout.
The dumbest thing of all is that the payouts on the machines are so low – maximum $1000 – that even winning a jackpot is not going to be of any real financial assistance to these poor saps. I can guarantee that the winnings get returned to the pokies long before any benefit accrues to children of these people.
If we think we have social problems in NZ now, just wait for another 15 years when the children of the gamblers have the ability to make real trouble. We know that deprivation during childhood makes bad adults, even when the deprivation is beyond parents’ control, so what will deprivation through gross stupidity leave us with? Fortunately for the insane politicians who have allowed the growth of pokies here, they will long be forgotten when it impacts on the rest of society.
And don’t for one second think that just because the problem is worse in South Auckland that this is a "brown" problem. Yes, many compulsive gamblers are brown-skinned, but this horrific disease is spread through all sectors of society.
How do we fix it?
Short of going and burning down all of the bars where pokies are placed, I do not believe there is an easy answer. I don’t fancy serving years in jail for arson and since the whole thing doesn’t affect me or my family, I am not about to go on molotov-cocktail spree.
The only small measure that we, the great New Zealand public can take is to ensure that we do not allow any of our hard-earned sponduliks to get into the infinitely deep pockets of the machine operators, or assist them in any way.
Boycott businesses who have pokies on the premises and spend you drinking money only at those establishments which have not fallen to the level of having an area set aside for these pieces of junk.
Copyright © Alan Charman