Soundings

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32637, 19 June 1971, Page 6

Soundings

by

DENIS McCAULEY

. Some years ago when 1 was living F 1 Sydney I used to go to the Journalists Club on paydays. One payday a fellow journalist came in and started playing the poker machines; about three hours later all he had left from P«X lua I u ac u et ? as a shillin «- “d with mis he bought a meat pie which he proceeded to ram piece by piece down the slot of the unproductive poker machine. I later found he had a wife and four children and he lost his whole pay Packet gambling about once a month. Since then I have seen other people gamble away home, happiness and, in one case, a highly lucrative business, as well as reading of a number of others finishing in court because of their compulsive gambling. Before I went to Australia somebody told me Australians would bet on anything from a horse race to two flies crawling up a wall. When I got to Australia I was told New Zealanders would bet on anything from a horse race to two flies crawling up a wall. Lve since heard it said about the English, and I suspect it has also been said about almost any other country you care to name.

The urge to gamble seems to be Part o' the nature of modem man, After • w ? like ,to win somathmg- But with some people it seems the thought of winning has been relegated to the background; it is the excitement of gambling, the thrill of uncertainty that preoccupies them.

My colleague in Sydney was unfortunate in that he lived in a State where there were poker machines in virtually every club. For anyone with the urge to gamble it was fatal.' Although as far as I know there are no reliable statistics on the num-

her of compulsive gamblers whose betting has led to family or financial ruin, the New South Wales State Government was at one stage seriously considering banning poker machines. Racing reporters I know who are constantly under temptation to bet, attending up to three or four meetings a week at times, are well aware of the problem. Most of the ones I know have adopted one of two approaches: taking no more money to a racecourse than they are prepared to lose, or being ruthlessly selective in their bets. Others of course acknowledge the problem but still go on betting compulsively. But to my mind the most frightening compulsive gambler is not the one on the racecourse or at the poker machine, but the one behind the wheel of a car. For every drinking driver there is probably at least one gambling driver, and it puts an awful lot of dangerous people on our roads. Going through a red light has a high risk element, yet there are plenty of such incidents even if we consider only those that end in court. There are dozens of other road situations with similar risk elements and there is always somebody taking the risk. It looks a bad bet: win nothing or lose all. But some people are prepared to make it for the thrill of the uncertainty, and the danger is that you or I might be the means of their losing.

There have been some suggestions that driving tests contain some form of psychological test, which would presumably spot the compulsive gambler, and there is much merit in the idea. Come to think of it, it could be extended to those wanting to go on a racecourse.