Five million gamblers in Australia are facing tighter controls to stop them getting into debt. Almost a quarter of the population play poker machines but new restrictions are being proposed because so many people are addicted. It is an issue which even threatens to bring a premature end to Julia Gillard's term as Prime Minister. The 'pokies' have become an Australian tradition since they were first legalised in 1956. Stakes can range from a single cent up to $10 (£6.56) per game, and they are the foundations on which hundreds of pubs and clubs have been built.
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Almost half of all Australians are members of not-for-profit clubs so the revenue earned from the machines is poured into subsidised entertainment and sports teams. Almost every pub and club in the land will have a room set aside for a few poker machines; some clubs have hundreds of them and look more like a casino than a place to have a drink with mates. The pokies generate £8bn a year in revenue; an average club relies on them for two thirds of its earnings. Around £600m is handed over to federal and state governments in taxes.
But inevitably, the widespread availability of machines makes them so popular that some people become addicted to playing, and lose much more than they can afford. The government estimates that there are 95,000 Australians who have become problem gamblers. Now one independent MP has gambled that there has never been a better time to do something about it. Andrew Wilkie was elected in Tasmania and immediately became one of a handful of Independents whose support is vital in keeping Julia Gillard's minority Labour government in power. He wants to see a compulsory system put in place in which all pokies players would have to register for a smartcard in order to play, and with which they would be able to set voluntary limits on how much they can afford to lose.
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The clubs have reacted with fury, saying the new technology would cost £2bn and would drive away casual players. They forecast that many clubs will be forced to close, throwing thousands of people out of work. Their organisation, Clubs Australia, is now spending millions of pounds on an advertising campaign which calls the "licence to punt", "un-Australian". The main TV advert has a script and acting which makes Neighbours seem like Shakespeare, and which doesn't feature a single shot of a poker machine; just two Aussie blokes, having a beer, and bemoaning the creeping power of government. But the campaign is having an effect, with growing resistance to the reforms.
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