This is a very one-sided story.  To be fair, we must also look at the positive side of gambling.  Brian’s money didn’t just disappear; most of it went to the coffers of Federal Hotels.  This, while admittedly not creating a win-win situation, has created a lose-win one, which is much better than a lose-lose.

Gaming machines have brought wealth without requiring the expenditure of nearly as much effort as work - to Federal Hotels.

Gaming machines have enabled the State ALP Government to break free of the tired old Labor policy of opposing monopolies - in favour of Federal Hotels.

The solution to the problem potentially facing future Brians is simple.  Own the machines.

Very just comment Justa. It’s one of those funny connections that most people don’t make. The image of Brian working hard all week to earn money; the same money just dropping into Federals coffers for no effort whatsoever. Not really any risk venture either. Then just picture the same thing happening, many, many times over.
No wonder Federals are cashed up to walk over small operators!

Brian is right, in that the Federal Hotels participation in gaming industry in Tasmania is totally superfluous. The hardware and software that make gaming work could be run from anywhere, even out of the Treasury or Launceston.
The other part of JANE RR’s article is that choice is being denied the customer. The loyal and addicted gaming addict ruins those around him and they all are the loser in all this. Costing over 5 times the gaming revenue, the social destruction courses it’s way through the government system. Court Costs, gaoling, social workers to pick up the mess at home and school, bankruptcy, theft, unemployment and all the other misery that follows this parasytical, Government sponsored tax on the poor, called gaming.

This is symbollic of a new premier trying to figure out what, and how to add value. It is so bereft of vision, experience in the leadership of outcomes that it sits in its various offices and tears itself and its people apart. Its Government consuming the integrity of its people.

The phrase “Its Government consuming the integrity of its people” is beautifully put Richard Butler, particularly given Treasury’s uneasy relationship with the owners of Tasmania’s gambling licenses. Poker machines serve no other purpose in our society but to consume the souls and all too often, the life savings of individuals unfortunate enough not to be able to resist their insidious allure.
Jane Rankin-Reid

But you are wrong, Jane.  Your comments are still one-sided.  Poker machines serve another purpose, which you seem to be deliberately ignoring: to make their owners rich.

All it needs is the smarts, the capital, the callousness and cynicism, and a close relationship with government, and you, too, can see the positive side of pokies.

Morality and compassion have no place in either the market or politics as they stand today.