Stronger harm minimisation measures are needed, mainly aimed at 'pokies', including lowering the intensity of play and the capacity for gamblers to set spending limits on themselves, according to this report. Gamblers in Australia spend (lose) over $18 billion per year including nearly $12 billion on poker machines. The Commission estimates that problem gamblers account...

This study, by the Australian Institute of Primary Care, led by Charles Livingston, analysed the composition and transformation over time of the technological basis of the Victorian electronic gaming machine industry, so as to develop an understanding of the relation between technology and consumption behaviour. The study was commissioned by the Gambling Research Panel.

Australia has 21 per cent of the world's poker machines. Maggie Brady documents the first successful Aboriginal use of regulation in order to prevent the installation of pokies in South Australia in 1998, and discusses how the Productivity Commission inquiry into Australia's gambling industries dealt with Indigenous gambling.

IN 2001, poker machine losses in Victoria surged past the $2.3b mark, up almost 10% - or $141m - on the previous year. This growth occurred despite the industry introducing its own Responsible Code of Practice in 1997 and despite the Bracks Labor government introducing a range of new socially responsible gaming policies over the...