Writing about Australia's Gambling Industry

Before I wrote Hooked Inside the Murky World of Australia’s Gambling Industry, I had little understanding of the visceral power the industry wields, the extent of its predatory business model or the multidimensional harm it inflicts on Australian society.

Every author goes on a journey to write a book. A book usually starts with little more than the kernel of an idea, mine was how had the gambling industry become so omni-present in Australian society? We’re used to the narrative that Australians love a bet, but, over recent decades, gambling has crept to a new level of normalisation in Australia. We can see it in the tsunami of gambling ads, the umbilical ties between the big sporting codes and the industry, and the failure of governments to seriously grapple with gambling reform.

All this was readily observable. My question was how had this happened? How did Australia get a gambling industry that just looks too big to fail?

I quickly decided that answering the question needed an historical approach. I could easily recall the rise to popularity of the big Sydney Leagues and RSL clubs in the 1970s stacked with pokies and entertainment, the controversy over the construction of Crown’s mega Southbank casino in the 1908s and, more recently, the scandal that engulfed Crown Resorts which was found to be infiltrated by Asian criminal gangs.

The story was infused by themes of mega profits, organised crime, political skulduggery and hapless victims.

I thought it was a big and important story to tell. My approach settled around the rise and power of Big Gambling in Australia. Why had governments facilitated its rise and then failed to rein in the industry? Gambling might be a legitimate pastime but in Australia a line had been crossed into an industry which damaged the public interest.

There was a mass of material on hand to help explain this question. Numerous government enquiries had, over the years, heard the cries from gamblers and community groups as they wrote their submissions, hoping governments would listen. Thoughtful recommendations that offered insights gathered dust.

Newspapers regularly carried stories of problem gamblers who’d been fleeced not just of their assets but their hope for the future.

Stories could be told around the failed attempts at reform, such as the gambling industry shooting down independent MP, Andrew Wilkie’s modest gambling reform agenda agreed with Prime Minister Julia Gillard in 2011. It was a well-orchestrated campaign that sent a chill through the political system warning it to stay away from the gambling industry’s profit machine.

And I had access to professional gamblers who knew the industry intimately and to high-profile campaigners pushing for industry reform. There’s nothing like allowing those at the coal face to reveal details that don’t make it to the public record.

Pulling all these threads together into a coherent story is always the challenge for writers. In writing Hooked I was driven by the ugliness of it all – the rapaciousness of the industry, the tragedy of the victims and the wilful ignorance of our politicians.

But I was buoyed, too, that Australians have not retreated in their desire to see this industry wound back and, especially, the continued anger over the intrusiveness and obvious destructiveness of gambling ads.

I was able to witness, too, the commitment of so many researchers and campaigners who have dedicated their professional lives to raising community awareness about Australia’s out-of-control gambling industry.

But one of the most shocking things I’d confronted in the project is the estimated 400 gambling addicts who take their lives each year. And that number is thought to be an underestimate – no one really knows the true figure.

So I hope Hooked adds to the voices calling for change.

Quentin Beresford is an Adjunct Professor at The Sunshine Coast University.

You can buy Hooked: Inside the murky world of Australia's gambling industry here. https://unsw.press/books/hooked/#buy-links