Poker machine debate continues.

In Australia, one of the hottest political issues is poker machines.

Poker machines in Australia are in a class of their own,

They are different from the fruit machines offered in pubs in the United Kingdom, or the pachinko machines in Japan.

Apart from South Australia, people can feed them high-denomination banknotes – in SA it has to be coins.

This means thousands of dollars can be loaded up in a moment once every couple of seconds.

Australian poker machines offer enormous jackpots worth tens of thousands of dollars.

Depending on which Australian state or territory they are in, they allow maximum bets of either $5 to $10 a spin.

This means that if they’re played at their maximum bet and maximum speed, they can easily consume $600 to $1,200 in an hour.

Poker machines generate enormous profits for Australia’s gambling industry.

Australians gambled $23.6 billion in 2015–16, the highest per capita amount spent anywhere in the world.

And out of that amount, $12.1 billion or more than $600 each adult, was poured through poker machines in clubs and pubs.

That compares to the $5.2 billion lost in casinos.

Poker machines have their opponents. Like for example Tim Freedman, the lead singer of the Australian rock band The Whitlams.

In 1999, he released the single Blow Up The Pokies.

The song is set at the now-defunct Sandringham hotel, which was a live-music venue in Newtown.

The lyrics tell the story of a failing father locked in a “secret battle” with poker machines that were allowed in the first place so the government could say “the trains run on time”.

The song was the first major hit for The Whitlams, peaking at #21 on the charts, and propelling the band on to a national tour.

The great irony is that many of the packed-out halls they were booked to play were in large clubs housing hundreds of poker machines.

“I felt like a Trojan horse,” Freedman told author Drew Rooke.

Leon Getler 25th May 2018.