Poker Machines
Pokies
shame
-
NSW
alone has around 10% of the world's poker machines.
-
This form of gambling offers pathetic payout percentages
to the player. (Around 90%)
-
Over
40 cents in every pokies dollar taken is estimated to
come from problem gamblers.
-
Poker
machines account for around two thirds ($9 billion)
of annual gambling losses in Australia.
-
Victorian
players alone lost $7 million a day in the 2001/02 financial
year.
-
The
biggest gambling addicts in Australia are revenue hungry
governments, pocketing over $4 billion in gambling taxes
in the 2001 - 2002 financial year.
Stats
from Productivity Commission report 2002
Poker
Machines, commonly known as Pokies (and only very loosely
based on the actual game of poker), are now sadly one
of the most prevalent froms of interactive gambling in Australia.
The statistics above show the sort of menace these insidious
machines have become.
Note:
If you or someone you know is a poker machine player please
visit our page on Virtual
Poker Machines for a possible way to break the financial
grip of this habit.
Electronic
mugger waits for victim!
The addictive
power of the Pokies
lies largely in their escapist element, but also in their
simplicity and availability. They've spread into pubs and
clubs so most people don't have to travel far to play and
you don't need to be a rocket scientist to learn how to use
them. (Try figuring out how to play Craps at a casino without
reading a rule book!)
Once lured
into the poker machine environment, gamblers are kept there
through Pavlovian conditioning by way of flashing lights,
the clinking of coins being returned and digital music played
whenever wins or special sequences occur, so that the possibility
of a big win is continually reinforced. The absence of windows
and clocks in most poker machine venues serves to create an
escapist environment where time is easily forgotten and responsibilities
fade into the background.
There
is very little Smartgambler can offer by way of advice to
Pokies players, other than to try to give them up. It would
be much better for you to switch to virtually any other form
of gambling, except perhaps Lotto. The Pokies have differing
percentage payouts depending on where you play them, but a
realistic ball park figure for the average percentage return
is around 91%, one of the worst gambling games you can play.
The percentage may be slightly higher than this in some cases
and slightly lower in others. Casinos in general have higher
returns than clubs. Online poker machine payouts are generally
better than those of physical machines.
Here is
a comment from one of our directors, Neil Davis, about pokies.
'I
like that wonderful sign on the Pokies, Machine malfunction
voids all pays. I would have thought in fairness it should
read, Machine malfunction voids all pays and collects.
I have told a number of Pokies players who spin after spin
did not get a collect that there is probably a machine malfunction
and they should demand all their losses be returned. For some
reason which I find hard to fathom they seemed to think there
was nothing wrong with the machine when they've gone 10 or
20 spins in a row and got nothing back.'
Yes, very
droll, Neil. 
If you
are determined to keep playing the Pokies, we can offer
some advice to help minimize your losses.
NEXT
... Poker Machine Advice
