Poker machine hypnosis

One of the things I've noticed with some of the pubs here lately is that they're getting rid of the poker machines (well, putting them in a completely separate room away from the main bar) and the pubs are going back to being a pleasant space again, where you can sit and chat, play pool, with music playing. I don't play the pokies, have had a go in the past with $10 or so. Wanted to see what was so attracting for people to play them. They're everywhere here.

Australia has more poker machines per capita than any other country. Our 200,057 pokies, the seventh highest number in the world, equates to one for every 108 Australians, with NSW, where pokies have been legal since 1956, accounting for almost half of those according to the 2010 World Count of Gaming Machines.
Link

Once I put in $5 and the machine went totally bananas. Bells and whistles, music coming out, pictures of money cascading across the screen. Won $110 that time. Thought that was great! But over the next month I'd put about $100 back into the machines, and so saw the folly of it all. Haven't played them since. 

They're also very anti-social. How many times have I been to a pub, all I want is a beer and a chat, and the person ends up sitting in front of one of those machines like a zombie. Not to mention how incredibly annoying the sound of them are. I don't even go to some particular pubs because the noise of them is so grating. One pub up the road from here, getting a drink at the main bar is like sitting in the middle of a bloody casino. Gladly now publicans are actually realising people like me exist and getting them away from the bar where people come to socialise. The next pub further up the road has done that and it's like walking into heaven after the other one. Getting a lot of people in it too.

Of course these pokies are causing huge social issues, with problem gamblers aplenty. Usually they're the ones who can least afford to lose money too. 

So anyway I got a GetUp email, directing me to this from the Today Tonight show on channel 7. A look at just how insidious these things can be: