They wouldn't have time to read it. They're all too busy counting their money and listening to Kenny Rogers version of same.

Couple of interesting articles in Canberra Times this morning:

"An accounts manager with a gambling problem pleaded guilty...of defrauding the ACT Dept Of Education and Community Services of $441,512.57."
Police estimated she had visited clubs an average of 288 times per year over a period of 4 years.
"Club Records [Tuggeranong Valley Club] show that she had recorded a poker machine turnover, inclusive of winnings, of $1,260,997.83" (this was at a SINGLE CLUB).
"Excluding wins she had input about $136,105 into the machines."
She also had gambled at other clubs as well!

Apparantly at no time was she ever questioned about the high spending or recommended counselling until she was arrested by police over the original fraud!


Also in an unrelated article it is reported that Canberra Clubs will be able to reduce their required donations from poker machine turnover by 33% if those donations go Womens Sport instead of mixed/mens sporting clubs or other charities!

A adult version of feeding the larfing clowns.


[ This Message was edited by: puntz on 2002-06-10 00:05 ]

The 7:30 report on ABC has a story on the woman mentioned in my previous post tonight.

Oops - sorry the story was about a different woman but the circumstances were almost the same. Woman with poker machine gambling problem steals thousands of dollars from employer and puts it all through the machines.

Interesting to see the club manager saying he had no obligation to refer the woman in question to a counsellor or enquire as to where she was getting the money!

[ This Message was edited by: becareful on 2002-06-06 20:03 ]

The biggest Poker Machine addict is the Government.
They can`t bare to give it up ,no matter what human damage it does. E.G.family breakdowns,embezzelments,suicide.

Govt.retail figures have the gambling turnover added to it ,dispite the protests of the Retail Assoc.who claim the gambling figure makes up 16% of the retail figures & growing mainly from Poker Machine because the TAB turnover is relativly stable , therefore should be shown seperatly.

Melb. has 2 Asaian gamblers annonomous associations their culture has been exposed to gambling for thousands of years,the assoc. claim their clints only became a problem once they were introduced to Poker machines .

Ausrtralia has the 2nd. largest number of machines in the world.
That has to be a sad indicement on our Governments need for greed.

When should we start worrying ,18%,20%,25%,I think NOW is as good a time as any.

It`s time for Australia to wake up on this one.

__________________
Cheers.

We nay have the second largest number of machines in the world but we have the most machines 'per capita' by a significant margin.

Those figures exclude Japan, which has more than 1 million machines. There machines look like pinball machines, but you bet.

Pachinko is the name of the game.

It's a form of vertical pinball in which the player shoots small metal balls into a pin-filled playing field. The balls then bounce from pin to pin until they come to rest in one of many compartments with various payout values.

There are actually around 4 million of these machines in Japan and the Japanese are crazy about them. The maximum bet value on these machines is a lot lower than on the pokies over here.

Ryan

There are also Pachislo games - About 1.2 mill i think. Aristocrat has a jv with Sammy Corp of Japan to produce Pachislo machines - Aristocrat supplies the software, while Sammy supplies the hardware. The machines look good.

Have people posting here actualy gone to the pokies and seen people playing and enjoying themselves. You also get free coffee and snacks like party pies.