Charles Henry Livingstone

Risky Business: A Few Provocations on the Regulation of Electronic Gaming Machines

Electronic gambling machines (EGMs) proliferate in Australian club and hotel venues, generating revenues of billions of dollars annually and accounting for the majority of gambling expenditure. These revenues arguably rely on unsafe consumption practices, generating considerable harm. Clear evidence is available describing unsafe levels of EGM consumption by regular EGM consumers in hotels and clubs, and indicating modifications to EGM technology and systems to minimize harm. However, a comfortable orthodoxy, the discourse of ‘business as usual’, perpetuates current arrangements, sustaining in particular a model of the ‘problem’ gambler as an individualized flawed consumer. The article argues that the marketing and distribution of EGMs is neither accidental nor something for which the individual is responsible, and neither is the safeguarding of oneself from the harm produced by goods licensed by government. Pursuit of a goal of safe consumption for all EGM gamblers requires disruption of the discourse of business as usual.

A review of public opinion towards alcohol controls in Australia

BackgroundIncreasing concern about the negative impact of alcohol on the Australian community has renewed calls for tighter regulatory controls. This paper reviews levels of and trends in public support for liquor control regulations, regulation of alcohol promotions, and alcohol pricing and taxation reforms in Australia between 1998 and 2009.MethodsSix electronic databases and twenty public health and alcohol organisation websites were searched for research literature, reports and media releases describing levels of public support for alcohol controls. Only studies which randomly selected participants were included.ResultsTwenty-one studies were included in the review. The majority of the Australian public support most proposed alcohol controls. Levels of support are divided between targeted and universal controls.ConclusionsImplementation of targeted alcohol policies is likely to be strongly supported by the Australian public, but universal controls are liable to be unpopular. Policy makers are provided with insights into factors likely to be associated with higher public support.

Desire and the consumption of danger: Electronic gaming machines and the commodification of interiority

This article brings together disparate elements of commercialized mass gambling, briefly describing the consumption of local gambling using electronic gaming machines (EGMs) in the Australian state of Victoria, particularly its capital, Melbourne. It also reports on the fieldwork research involving conversations with 62 self-identified EGM ‘problem gamblers’. The article brings the empirical material produced by analysis of data and discussions into conversation with the social theory of Cornelius Castoriadis and others in order to explain some aspects of the rapidly developing social institution of commercialised mass gambling. The article seeks to ‘dig into’ the heart of the gambling transaction, as an act of dangerous consumption, in order to pursue understanding of the significance that this holds for the social individual, and for understanding of the role of desire in the commodification of the interiority of the subject, which, it is argued, lies at the core of dangerous consumptions.

Modelling vulnerability to gambling related harm: How disadvantage predicts gambling losses

Electronic gambling machines (EGMs) are ubiquitous in social venues such as hotels and clubs in most Australian states, and account for 55% of total gambling expenditure in Australia; they are also associated with most gambling derived harm. Because of the difficulty of assessing the prevalence of problem gambling and the incidence of gambling derived harms, gambling expenditure (i.e., the losses of those gambling) is often used in gambling research as a proxy indicator of harm. This study examines the relationship between socioeconomic disadvantage (measured by the Australian Bureau of Statistics SEIFA Index of Relative Socioeconomic Disadvantage [IRSD]), and EGM losses at the suburban level across a major Australian city. It develops a predictive spatial model of gambling vulnerability and presents the output visually. The findings reveal increasing levels of loss as disadvantage increases across IRSD quintiles. The highest mean annual EGM losses of

What is the evidence for harm minimisation measures in gambling venues

849 per adult (95% CI

Games of chance or masters of illusion: multiline slots design may promote cognitive distortions

AU749–963) occurred in areas classified in IRSD Quintile 1, the most disadvantaged areas; in the least disadvantaged areas, mean annual losses were

External factors affecting decision-making and use of evidence in an Australian public health policy environment

298 per adult (CI

Support for breaking the nexus between alcohol and community sports settings: findings from the VicHealth Community Attitudes Survey in Australia.

260 –

Hooked on gambling: a problem of human or machine design?

342). The density of EGMs confounds the relationship between losses and disadvantage. In this model, 40% of the apparent effect of disadvantage is explained by the density of EGMs. The vulnerability surface reflects socioeconomic patterns across Melbourne. EGM vulnerability is clustered (Morans Index 0.52; p < 0.001). High levels of EGM density in disadvantaged areas are contributing to a disproportionate share of EGM losses in already disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Regulation of EGMs could be improved to better protect vulnerable neighbourhoods from EGM harm.

Neuroscience in gambling policy and treatment: an interdisciplinary perspective

The use of electronic gambling machines (EGMs) in Australia and New Zealand constitutes the largest sector of the gambling industry....