Australia has pokies the way America has guns: Drew Rooke's investigation into the gambling industry

Good Reading Podcast

Besides gambling destinations like Macau or Monaco, Australia has the highest amount of poker machines per capita in the world. New South Wales was the second jurisdiction - just behind Nevada in the US - to legalise pokies, and a Sydney manufacturer continues to be at the forefront of pokie machine design and production. Drew Rooke's 'One Last Spin: The power and peril of the pokies' is a shocking investigation into the gambling's industry's power over politicians. It lays out how governments line their pockets with the billions fed to poker machines while gambling addicts' lives fall apart, and how the industry uses NRA-style techniques to block legislation that would help addicts, yet stem their profits. In this podcast, Drew talks about the techniques poker machines use to beguile gamblers, the science of pokie addiction, and how his faith in the government to protect Australia's most vulnerable has been lost. Get the book here: https://bit.ly/2KR6a5Z Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/good-reading-podcast/id1402922430?mt=2