Latest news with #pokermachines
The Guardian
06-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Morning Mail: alarm over pokies influencers; toxic algal bloom reaches Adelaide; Oscar Piastri cops penalty at British GP
Good morning. There are calls for a clampdown on social media influencers allegedly using 'shocking' content to push viewers towards the use of poker machines. Meanwhile, a toxic algal bloom that has torn through coastal ecosystems in South Australia has now arrived on Adelaide's beaches – and there are warnings that it may be here to stay. The death toll in the Texas floods continues to rise as search and rescue efforts give way to the recovery of bodies. And Australian Oscar Piastri led for most of the British F1 Grand Prix but a controversial penalty cost him victory. Karenia mikimotoi | South Australia's toxic algal bloom has arrived on Adelaide's beaches, deepening concern about the unfolding catastrophe affecting the state's coastline. Pokies influencers | The peak body for Australian doctors has urged politicians and social media companies to restrict 'shocking' content of influencers allegedly glamourising poker machines on social media. Rates decision | The RBA is expected to cut the cash rate again this week, in a move that would give further relief to millions of Australians with mortgages – and bolster the struggling economy. 'No empty words' | Kumanjayi Walker's family are calling for 'real action' as they await the coroner's final report, almost five years after the Warlpiri man died during a bungled arrest in a remote Northern Territory community. Antisemitism | The government has labelled the Melbourne synagogue fire an 'attack on Australia', as Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu demands that Labor do more to stop antisemitic attacks. Texas floods | The death toll in the Texas floods has risen to at least 70 as search and rescue turns into grim recovery operation; Donald Trump has declared the deadly floods a 'major disaster'. Gaza crisis | Israeli strikes have killed at least 38 in Gaza as ceasefire talks reach a critical point, while people in Gaza barely dare to hope for success in the ceasefire talks. US politics | Elon Musk should stay out of politics, the US treasury secretary says after the billionaire's 'America party' announcement. And is Trump's expansion of presidential powers setting the stage for future Oval Office holders? Trump tariffs | The EU is entering a crunch week with only two days of talks left to secure a trade deal with Washington to avert Trump's threatened 50% tariff on its imports into the US. 'It was something huge' | The owners of a pet lion that escaped from a farmhouse and injured a woman and her two children have been arrested in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore. Japan's rice crisis Homegrown rice is a key part of Japanese culture, identity and politics, dating back thousands of years. So much so that any disruption can spark a wave of consumer anger, reaching even the highest echelons of power. But as the country grapples with a shortage of the grain, locals are asking whether it's finally time to learn to love the imported version. Reged Ahmad spoke with Justin McCurry in Osaka about the dilemma. After months of angst and uproar in the arts, the decision has finally been reconfirmed: Khaled Sabsabi and Michael Dagostino will represent Australia at the Venice Biennale in 2026. An independent report has identified 'missteps' – and raises red flags about the selection process for future Venice Biennales. So, asks curator and art historian Elizabeth Ann Macgregor, how can Creative Australia rebuild confidence in its role in supporting the visual arts? 'Elderspeak' may involve the use of inappropriate terms of endearment, juvenile language or unnecessarily loud or slow enunciation. It can often be a vehicle for attributing ageist stereotypes to the older person, defining them not by their selfhood but by their age. Marcia van Zeller surveys this form of benevolent ageism – and explains how even well-intended words, such as 'sweetheart', can still sting. Sign up to Morning Mail Our Australian morning briefing breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Motorsport | Lando Norris of McLaren has won the F1 British Grand Prix from an angry Oscar Piastri after a controversial penalty in a rain-soaked Silverstone thriller. Rugby union | Wallabies maintain 'quiet resolve' for Lions series despite injuries, errors and uncertainties, Jack Snape writes; Wallabies score late to snatch win against surging Fiji as Lions await. Cricket | Australia defeated the West Indies by 133 runs on the fourth day of the second Test in Grenada to clinch the series win. Tennis | Aryna Sabalenka ousts Elise Mertens to reach Wimbledon quarter-finals; Briton Cam Norrie into Wimbledon quarter-finals after five-set battle; Australian Jordan Thompson bows out due to back injury. Cycling | Mathieu van der Poel sprints to stage two victory in Boulogne-sur-Mer – and now wears the race leader's yellow jersey. Cancer rates in Australians under 50 are rising at a pace that is alarming doctors and scientists as they race to understand why, ABC News reports. The City of Parramatta has spent more than $5m removing dozens of staff in secret payouts, reports the Sydney Morning Herald. Australians who survived the 7/7 London terror attack 20 years ago are among those gathering to honour those killed in the bombings, the Age reports. The future of Tasmania's zinc smelter – and workers' jobs – hangs in the balance, the Mercury reports. RBA | The Reserve Bank of Australia board is meeting today ahead of this week's rates decision. NT | The findings in the Kumanjayi Walker coronial inquest are due to be released this morning. Tasmania | A man is due to appear in court in Launceston over the alleged murder of a police officer. Victoria | The jury in the Erin Patterson trial continues its deliberations in Morwell. Enjoying the Morning Mail? Then you'll love our Afternoon Update newsletter. Sign up here to finish your day with a three-minute snapshot of the day's main news, and complete your daily news roundup. And follow the latest in US politics by signing up for This Week in Trumpland. And finally, here are the Guardian's crosswords to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. Quick crossword Cryptic crossword
The Guardian
06-07-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
Australian doctors call for clampdown on social media influencers allegedly glamorising poker machines
The peak body for Australian doctors has urged politicians and social media companies to restrict 'shocking' content of influencers allegedly glamorising poker machines on social media, in what it called an incredibly new phenomenon. The warning comes after a report commissioned by the Victorian government found the social cost of gambling in the state had doubled – from $7bn in 2014-15 to $14bn in 2022-23 – despite fewer people gambling. The report suggested those at higher risk of gambling harm were spending more money. The figures include tangible costs, like bankruptcy, but also indirect costs, including emotional and psychological harm, such as depression. The videos uploaded to Instagram show influencers inserting hundreds of dollars into poker machines and telling viewers they will continue to do so until a certain amount of people follow them. Other accounts collate videos of people winning on poker machines – including turning $5 into $164,000, without documenting their losses. Several posts seen by Guardian Australia can be accessed by children and teenagers, and do not contain responsible gambling messages. These messages are required when gambling companies promote their products through broadcast ads, social media and podcasts. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email The new trend has worried public health campaigners who fear the content may be introducing a younger generation to poker machines and undermining messages designed to limit gambling-related harm. Dr Danielle McMullen, the president of the Australian Medical Association, said the videos were 'shocking'. 'They are clearly targeted at young people and seek to glamorise what is a dangerous habit and not one we would encourage people to take part in,' McMullen said. 'These videos show that our regulations around gambling just aren't keeping up with the 21st century. They are essentially ads for gambling and our governments need to take a long hard look about how we get on top of this content.' Instagram's owner, Meta, said it had strict rules for the promotion of gambling and that it would 'remove any content that does not comply with our standards as soon as we become aware' of it. 'Both the advertiser and creator must obtain written permission to promote real money gambling and must comply with all applicable Australian laws and regulations,' a Meta spokesperson said. But it is not clear whether these accounts are defined as advertising, despite allegedly promoting gambling, as they do not appear to have been published in partnership with any gambling company or venue. Many of the posts seen by Guardian Australia have been online for several weeks. Dr Mark Johnson, a senior lecturer at the University of Sydney, who has researched social media influencers and gambling, said the emergence of influencers focused on poker machines was an 'incredibly new phenomenon'. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion 'We're seeing people who have already built significant followings shifting into gambling content in recent years, while we've also seen people starting off with this kind of content and trying to reach the status of an influencer,' Johnson said. 'This is then a wholly contemporary thing, and there's almost no research on it.' On Monday, Guardian Australia revealed Instagram influencers were inadvertently promoting an offshore gambling company that is banned from targeting Australians consumers. Videos posted by multiple influencers referenced the name of the company, included links to its international website, and shared financial inducements for people to create accounts. This practice has infuriated the Australian media regulator, which has threatened influencers with fines of up to $59,400 for 'promoting or publicising illegal online gambling services'. The Meta spokesperson said the company operated a 'strike system to hold advertisers and creators accountable for the content they post'. This system can result in accounts being restricted or disabled if there is a history of violations. A spokesperson for the Australian Influencer Marketing Council said it was clear that influencers needed more education about their roles and legal responsibilities. They added: 'Many creators engaging in affiliate marketing may not fully understand the regulatory frameworks in which they operate.' In Australia, Gambling Help Online is available on 1800 858 858. The National Debt Helpline is at 1800 007 007. In the UK, support for problem gambling can be found via the NHS National Problem Gambling Clinic on 020 7381 7722, or GamCare on 0808 8020 133. In the US, call the National Council on Problem Gambling at 800-GAMBLER or text 800GAM
ABC News
12-06-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
NSW failing to reduce gambling harm from pokies, auditor-general's report shows
A leading charity has described the system governing poker machines in New South Wales as "broken" in the wake of a damning auditor-general's report into the effectiveness of gaming machine regulations. NSW Auditor-General Bola Oyetunji has tabled a performance audit into the regulation of gaming machines at state parliament. The report revealed state agencies Liquor and Gaming NSW and the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA) had failed to focus its gaming strategy on harm minimisation. It went on to say: "The Department has developed a regulatory strategy that sets out its priorities clearly and has communicated this to stakeholders. "However, the strategy does not have a sufficient focus on the areas that are considered high-risk for gambling harm and does not set any targets for reducing harm associated with gaming machines. "Gaming machine losses and the social costs of gambling harm continue to be disproportionately concentrated in socio-economically disadvantaged communities." Wesley Mission chief executive officer Reverend Stu Cameron said the audit's findings were of no surprise. "While we did not need an audit to know the system is broken, as frontline services have been saying this for years, now it is in black and white," Reverend Cameron said. The audit's findings include: The audit report also found the state had significantly more poker machines than all other Australian jurisdictions combined, despite legislative provisions that aim to reduce the number of machines. The audit report said there were only 12 gambling inspectors and all were based in Sydney. "While most of the regular inspections are done in Greater Sydney, nine of the 10 suburbs with the highest number of people accessing GambleAware services in 2023-24 were located outside Greater Sydney," it stated. Opposition Leader Mark Speakman said people were promised action by Mr Minns when he came into power. "In Western Sydney, entire salaries are disappearing into poker machines, Premier Chris Minns and Gaming and Racing Minister David Harris are nowhere to be found," Mr Speakman said. He added that it went deeper than "stopping people from having a flutter". "The auditor-general's report showed harm is rising, inspections are not happening, and Labor has broken every promise it made," he said. Greens MP and spokesperson for gambling harm reduction Cate Faehrmann said the report showed regional areas, including Wollongong and Newcastle were not being given the proper attention. She said the government was failing in its regulatory duty to reduce harm. "They are tinkering around the edges rather than genuine measures to reduce gambling harm," he said. "Entire regions could go months or years without a single inspection." NSW Gaming and Racing Minister David Harris has welcomed the report, with the relevant agencies "accepting its recommendations", but blamed the previous Coalition government. "The report looked at the period 2019 to 2024, which was largely under the former Coalition government." He said reiterated the government's commitment to harm minimisation, saying it had already implemented a number of initiatives. Reverend Cameron said the audit showed a public health crisis. "If people were being harmed this badly by alcohol, drugs or unsafe roads, action would be swift. This is a public health crisis and it needs to be treated as such."
The Guardian
04-06-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
NSW gamblers losing $24m to poker machines every day, analysis shows
The New South Wales government has failed to prevent serious gambling harm with $2.7bn lost to poker machines in the first 90 days of this year, according to a charity group pushing for tougher regulation. Analysis of state government data by Wesley Mission has found the amount of money lost to poker machines during the first quarter of 2025 increased by 5.7% when compared with the same period in 2024. According to the analysis, NSW residents are now losing an average of $1m an hour to poker machines across the state, or more than $24m every day. Poker machines losses were the highest in Sydney's western suburbs. In the Canterbury-Bankstown area, more than $186m was lost to 4,924 poker machines in just 90 days, or an average of more than $2m a day. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email In just 90 days, more than $766m was lost to poker machines across seven local government areas in western Sydney: Fairfield, Cumberland, Blacktown, Parramatta, Penrith and Campbelltown and Canterbury-Bankstown. Wesley Mission, which sat on the NSW government's expert independent panel on gambling reform, has warned residents in Sydney's west are now losing an average of about $3,200 a year. The charity's chief executive, Stu Cameron, said the state government needed to urgently introduce tougher regulation of poker machines. 'The government has implemented limited reforms, but they clearly aren't having a material impact,' Cameron said. 'The losses continue to be massive, the poker machines keep multiplying and their devastating impact deepens every day. 'If the goal was to reduce gambling harm, then these reforms have failed. What we need now is courage – not more delays.' A spokesperson for the NSW minister for gaming and racing, David Harris, said the government was committed to 'evidence-based gaming reform' that would reduce harm and stop money laundering, while supporting local communities and jobs. 'Our gaming reforms are about changing people's behaviour which takes time,' Harris said. 'The government is reducing the overall number of gaming machines in NSW by reducing the gaming machine entitlement cap by over 3,000 since this Government was elected in 2023. 'Our government has also committed $100m to harm minimisation, introduced more responsible gambling officers, and have slashed cash limits on new machines.' Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Wesley Mission also called on the state government to also introduce mandatory shutdowns of poker machines from midnight to 10am, to introduce a cashless gaming card with enforceable harm reduction limits, and to set tighter caps on the number of machines in high-risk communities. 'These are not radical ideas – they are basic public health protections,' Cameron said. 'If people were being harmed this severely by alcohol, drugs, or unsafe roads, the government would act.' 'Gambling should be no different. Instead, the government does little while the industry rakes in billions.' Wesley Mission's analysis found the number of poker machines operating across the state had slightly increased when compared with the first quarter of 2024. The shadow minister for gaming, Kevin Anderson, said the government had 'promised a big game' on poker machines before the state election, but failed to deliver. 'The delays are just mind boggling and so frustrating for industry,' Anderson said. 'When I talk to pubs and clubs, they want certainty from this government and they are not getting it.' In November last year, the independent panel wrote a 'roadmap' on how to overhaul the state's regulation of poker machines and limit harm. The Minns government is yet to formally respond to the report's recommendations, which were contested by some panel members.
ABC News
10-05-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Pokies to patronage: How an Australian billionaire is shifting his power
Every day, Australians lose about $40 million on poker machines — devices deeply woven into the country's economic and political fabric. The man who helped pioneer this industry, Len Ainsworth, has amassed a multi-billion-dollar fortune. In recent decades, he's channelled much of this wealth into philanthropy, wielding quiet influence from behind the scenes. Shifting power Nelson Nghe was shocked when he heard the name: "The Ainsworth Family Gallery". The artist, from Western Sydney, had travelled into the city to celebrate the opening of a new modern wing at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. The project, which only got off the ground thanks to multimillion-dollar philanthropic donations, had cost $344 million. When he arrived, Nghe had been floored by the building's grandeur. "I was like, wow, there's so much light and glass here," he says. "The ceilings just seemed so tall as well. They kept going on and on." Nghe says the Ainsworth family legacy had a profound effect on his life. ( ABC News: Jack Fisher ) But his awe began to curdle when someone mentioned one of the exhibition halls in the new building had been named after billionaire businessman Len Ainsworth and his family, in thanks for a $10 million donation. For Nghe, a gallery honouring the legacy of a man who'd built his fortune as Australia's most prolific manufacturer of poker machines "definitely does not compute". A collage of Nghe on his 5th birthday placed onto a photo of a gambling table. ( ABC News: Jack Fisher ) This was personal for him — Nghe's art explores how poker machines shaped and scarred his childhood in Western Sydney. "The name is a very loaded and complicated one for me," he says. "It symbolises almost my cage in that, that's been the name that has caged me and my loved ones." Len Ainsworth's influence on the modern poker machine industry is so immense, he's often called the "pokies king". The 101-year-old billionaire started not just one, but two of the world's biggest poker machine manufacturing companies — Aristocrat Leisure and Ainsworth Game Technology — amassing a $5.85 billion empire for him, and his family, along the way. Aristocrat Leisure is today worth $40 billion, three times the value of Qantas. Among other things, the company claims to have invented the world's first microprocessor poker machine — ushering in a new digital age for the technology that experts say supercharged its addictive risk. But in recent decades, Len Ainsworth has restyled himself as a highly visible philanthropist, pledging to give away half of his fortune, including to medicine, science and cultural institutions like the Art Gallery of NSW. Nghe says the esteem granted to Ainsworth by the gallery "just set something off in me". "It gave me more of a mission," he says, "to want to find out more and to dig deeper." Lobbying efforts revealed in unpublished book For decades, Len Ainsworth was a larger-than-life character in the Australian media — feuding publicly with critics of poker machines, his business rivals and even politicians. He made headlines for suing NSW police officers for defamation, and his own son for selling shares in the family poker machine business Aristocrat Leisure without giving his father his promised cut. But amidst all of this drama, Ainsworth's ambition and strategy powered his company's ascent. By the late 1970s, it controlled at least 75 per cent of the poker machine market in Australia. At this time though, the market was limited because poker machines in clubs were only legal in NSW and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). Historian Susan Marsden, who spent years interviewing Len Ainsworth and reviewing his archives, discovered that around this time, Ainsworth's expansion plans took a decisive turn towards politics — one that would have a lasting impact. Marsden's biography of Ainsworth, The Patriarch of the Pokies, was commissioned by one of his sons, but the family decided not to publish it. "From the '70s," she says, "[Len] was approached by licensed club associations of the other states, asking him for help to persuade their governments of the benefits of legalizing poker machines." Marsden found that in 1979, Ainsworth started donating to an organisation called the Australian Club Development Association, committing to spend $100,000 a year on the group and $150,000 annually for a lobbyist to run a campaign. "So, he was certainly very involved quite directly in a proactive way," she says. By the early 1990s, those lobbying efforts paid off when Queensland, Victoria and South Australia legalized poker machines in clubs, massively expanding the local market. The economic conditions at the time played a big part in these state's decisions; state banks in Victoria and South Australia failed after overextending themselves in the 1980s. Len Ainsworth was investigated for trying to monopolise the poker machine industry — those charges that were later dropped. ( Supplied: Top left: Gary Ede via National Library of Australia, bottom: Courtesy UNSW Archives ) "The governments were really scrambling to find money," Marsden says. And poker machine revenue, which could be taxed, could help fill the void. As these new states came on board, the money lost in poker machines soared nationally, more than doubling between 1990 and 1995 to $3.8 billion, according to government figures — a trend that's continued. Last year, the NSW government alone received $970 million in tax revenue from poker machines in registered clubs, an industry that's become a fierce defender of these machines against reform efforts. 'It's like watching a train crash' Today, more than 70 years after Len Ainsworth first started making poker machines in his father's dental supply factory in Sydney's west, the country's biggest pokie losses are concentrated in Western Sydney. Last year in Cumberland, the local government area where Nelson Nghe grew up, pubs and clubs made a net profit of about half a billion dollars from poker machines. Nghe will sometimes visit these venues in his area, as research for his art. "It's like watching a train crash," he says. "When I walk around these floors, I see so many newly arrived migrants and young people, and then it hits home; this was the moment my own family stepped foot into these places. "I'm seeing history repeat." Much of Nghe's recent work takes the form of pictures of himself as a child, collaged into images that illustrate just how much poker machines shaped his life. At first glance, he wants the images to seem sweet — almost nostalgic — until the darker side of the photo dawns on the viewer. When Background Briefing visits Nghe in his home studio, he picks one out of a huge pile on his dining table. Nelson Nghe wants his art to make people feel uncomfortable. ( ABC News: Jack Fisher ) A paper house in Nelson's exhibition made with scratchies. ( ABC News: Jack Fisher ) Nghe as a baby collaged onto a photo of a pokies room. ( ABC News: Jack Fisher ) "In this piece, I've got a work where it's Len Ainsworth and me," he says, holding up a collage image of the pair standing together in front of a bank of poker machines. In it, Nghe is a child, leaning against a poker machine, and Len Ainsworth is smiling at the camera. It's an unsettling imagined scene: the older man whose machine so profoundly influenced the young boy's life, standing beside each other. "We're in a photo together because our lives have really been linked and have been a part of each other," Nghe says. Nelson says he wants the Ainsworth family to see his exhibition in the hope it could change their perspective on what how poker machines have changed Australia. ( ABC News: Jack Fisher ) For his family, Nghe says, the impact of poker machines was profound. "Growing up, money became another part of the family because you realise it has such a power over everyone… it controls your life because you see so much of it being lost," he says. Memories of childhood come back to him in flashes: constant conflict and stress because of gambling, finding a hidden stash of credit cards in the house, interventions by desperate family members. "It's almost like you grow up on quicksand. The ground underneath you is so unstable," he says. Coming from a refugee background, he says there was an added level of shame and stigma around gambling. It was everywhere, but no one spoke about it, beyond the gossip about whose parents' car was spotted outside the local pokies clubs or which school friends who lost their homes to gambling. Nghe's artwork blends childhood with gambling. ( ABC News: Jack Fisher ) But as an artist just starting out in his career, Nghe knows there are risks to criticising this powerful industry and a man like Len Ainsworth, whose influence extends even into the art world. "Part of me is wondering what am I getting myself into? I don't think any other artist would be doing this in their right mind," Nghe says. "No one wants to be that first person. Because people are afraid to bite the hand that feeds them. But maybe sometimes we've got a nibble at that hand, you know?" He says he wants others to understand the impact of gambling not just on the gambler, but on the people who love them — their family, their community, their kids. "I'm trusting that what I went through as a child of a gambler was not for nothing," Nghe says. "I think that's why I want to reach out to Len… wouldn't he want to know the end result of what he created?" The 'pokies king' becomes a 'visionary' donor In recent decades, Len Ainsworth has directed his attention and wealth towards building a lasting legacy. Once etched on the flashing faces of slot machines across the nation, Ainsworth's name now graces the grand facades of Sydney's most prestigious buildings. All in thanks for donations made by Len Ainsworth. The Children's Medical Research Institute has Ainsworth Tower. The University of New South Wales, Western Sydney University, Macquarie University and Sydney Children's Hospital each have a building named after Ainsworth. Len Ainsworth has given away tens of millions to research and art institutions over decades. ( Fairfax: Cole Bennetts ) There's is also an Ainsworth Family Conservation Laboratory at the State Library of New South Wales where Len Ainsworth is listed as a "visionary" donor, having given more than $5 million to the institution. And, of course, the Ainsworth Family Gallery at the Art Gallery of NSW. His pivot to philanthropy began in the 1990s after a cancer scare, which prompted the pokies tycoon to make succession plans — including for Aristocrat, the company he'd spent 40 years building. "I thought the best thing to do was to divide the value of my estate up, which included the whole of Aristocrat at that time and give it to my wife, my ex-wife and my seven children," he told the ABC in 2017. But Ainsworth survived, and in 1996 he made his first major philanthropic donation: $1.5 million to Sydney Children's Hospital. And with a new lease on life, he even started a second poker machine manufacturing giant — Ainsworth Game Technology. The Art Gallery of NSW named this room after the family made a sizeable donation. ( ABC News: Jack Fisher ) Len Ainsworth has made donations of millions to various NSW institutions. ( ABC News: Jack Fisher ) This put him in direct competition with Aristocrat, where many of his sons were still working — readying the company to be floated on the stock market. When Aristocrat went public in 1996, the shares Ainsworth had handed his family made them incredibly wealthy. And when his sons stepped back from managing Aristocrat, many of them also turned to philanthropy, like their father. Len Ainsworth's sons rarely speak publicly about their father and the origins of their fortunes. Over the past decade, most have sold down their shares in Aristocrat and Ainsworth Game Technology. Instead, the family has forged an identity as some of the biggest philanthropic donors in Australia across medicine, culture, environmental causes and the arts. "As a private person, I prefer to minimise publicity of my philanthropic activities but at the same time realise that setting a positive example is the best way to encourage others to give back," Ainsworth said when he signed up to Bill Gates' Giving Pledge to give away half his fortune. "I have a large family of sons and am doing my best to encourage them to follow my example and embark on their own philanthropic endeavours." 'What do you do about fools?' Len Ainsworth has often said he's never gambled, such as telling Four Corners back in 2000, "I'm far too busy creating things for other people to gamble on." But he has been questioned directly, at times, about the impact of his machines on others. Most recently, in a piece celebrating his 100th birthday two years ago, he told The Australian newspaper he believed gamblers need to exercise personal responsibility. Billions of dollars are lost to poker machines across the country every year. ( Getty: Paul Richards ) "The person who goes and, shall we say, plays a poker machine and he has no money left to buy food or whatever is a fool. What do you do about fools?" Ainsworth said. "The answer is: there's nothing much you can do about them." But privately, it seems, he has shown some interest in learning more about harm reduction. Rowan Cameron, former head of harm minimisation efforts at ClubsNSW and Crown Casino, says a few years ago he received an invitation out of the blue from Ainsworth to have lunch. "I was curious about the man because, as a billionaire pokey baron and manufacturer, it wasn't necessary on his part really to spend any time with the likes of me," Cameron says. He says Ainsworth was a "product of his era" who believed strongly in personal responsibility. "But I did get a sense that his curiosity around what could be done to minimise harm was genuine." Publicly, though, when the Productivity Commission recommended $1 maximum bets on poker machines and a mandatory pre-commitment card to help people struggling with gambling addiction, in 2010, Ainsworth was dismissive. "Why interfere with things?" he told ABC's 7.30 Report. "I mean, are we trying to run a nanny state where the government is going to tell us how we spend our own money?" 'They like the money' Tim Costello, a longtime campaigner for poker machine reform, says there are moral and ethical issues with major institutions taking donations from Len Ainsworth, because of the poker machine connection. "I think it's very problematic," he says. "Pokies are legal, like tobacco is legal but those places would not take donations from tobacco companies." The Art Gallery of NSW declined multiple interview requests from Background Briefing. The institutions that have named buildings after Ainsworth all said they have processes in place to weigh up taking donations and were happy to accept Ainsworth's funding. Costello says that when it comes to gambling, by now, "We know the social costs". "People don't want to talk about it because they do know that, but they like the money," he says. But, he adds, views on gambling are shifting — even, it seems, within the Ainsworth family. "I would say that there is a member of the Ainsworth family who has been very generous to the Alliance for Gambling Reform," Costello says. "I do know that there are some family members who actually have a conscience [on this issue] and I think that's very significant." That family member did not want to be named. Len Ainsworth didn't respond to Background Briefing's requests for an interview, nor did he respond to questions. None of his sons wished to speak on the record. Still, Costello remains hopeful that a member of the Ainsworth family will publicly throw their support behind long-awaited poker machines reforms in NSW, which he believes have stalled. Tim Costello is a staunch advocate for pokies reform. "I think an Ainsworth family member … speaking out might break through some of the impasses," he says, pointing to industry bodies ClubsNSW and the Australian Hotels Association (AHA) as the main blockers of reform. Both ClubsNSW and the AHA have rejected calls for the introduction of a new system for poker machines in NSW, which would require all gamblers to sign up for an account. This system was recommended by the executive committee of the Independent Panel on Gaming Reform, a body convened after revelations that huge amounts of money were being laundered by criminals through poker machines in NSW. The panel was made up of reform advocates, experts, industry members and one person with lived experience. For 18 months it debated how best to stop money laundering and help people experiencing gambling harm, and reviewed results of a six-month trial cashless gaming technology. Aristocrat withdrew from the trial early on, saying it wanted to focus on developing its own cashless technology. But along with it, about half of the 28 venues that were slated to participate also pulled out, because Aristocrat was providing their cashless technology. The panel's industry members refused to endorse the account-based system, all citing the paucity of data yielded by the six-month trial of the cashless gaming card. The Minns Government has still not responded to the report. A spokesperson for the NSW gaming minister David Harris said the government was "considering" the panel's report and weighing community feedback on the proposed reforms. "The government has asked the department to conduct detailed economic modelling on proposals," the spokesperson said. Completing the picture one frame at a time On a rainy Friday evening in April, dozens of people packed into a room at the Sydney gallery Firstdraft for Nelson Nghe's first solo exhibition. The harbour views of the Art Gallery of NSW only five minutes away, here the view was of an old concrete basketball court, encircled by a chain-link fence. The gallery goers drank wine from plastic tumblers. Inside, the crowd moved slowly around the room, peering at Nghe's 150 artworks, all presented in childlike frames Nghe had found in op shops. Nghe uses art to process his childhood memories of gambling. ( ABC News: Jack Fisher ) Among them is the collage of him, as a kid, standing beside Len Ainsworth. Nghe says he's glad people have found his work confronting. His aim is to shake people out of their complacency, to ask whether having hundreds of poker machines at your local club — or a dozen stuffed into the back room of every pub — is normal. And he says he wants to turn the focus back onto those who've profited from gambling harm — the clubs, the pubs, politicians and manufacturers, like Len Ainsworth. Nghe wants his exhibition to educate people on the harm pokies cause. ( ABC News: Jack Fisher ) "As a child, you blame the people who you thought were supposed to look after you. It's only as an adult that you realise actually that anger is misplaced," he says, reflecting on how his own thinking has shifted in recent years. "You've been told to judge the gambler, the person experiencing the gambling harm. So, your focus is there until you realise … here's another party at play here, and how come they don't get any of your focus?" On the question of whether any of the Ainsworths might see his exhibition, he's optimistic. "I would definitely love them to see it and would love to know what they think," he says. While Nghe seeks to understand the roots of his family and community's struggle with poker machines, he holds onto hope that one day, they'll want to understand his story too. "It's how we complete the picture." Credits:
