Exposition: Gambling In Australia

Essay by JinsueHigh School, 10th gradeB+, June 2008

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Gambling has existed in Australia since the dawn of time; it crosses all class and social barrier all over the world, especially here in Australia.

We have nationally celebrated days of horse racing in which everyone is encouraged to place a bet, even school children for whom it isn’t actually legal. This is over looked however in the spirit of the day, but what impression does that have on modern children? More and more people are growing up and a world where there are over 300 000 poker machines placed everywhere, schools have poker nights, casinos are all over the television screen and underage gambling is encouraged.

You only need look at some statistics of Australians with gambling addictions to see there is a problem and gambling has slipped too far out of control. More than 20% of Australians adults gamble and about half of that number are addicts in some way.

Family are completely destroyed by parents gambling away fortunes, houses, cars and everything they once possessed.

While more strict government policies are being introduced now in Australia, the pokies can’t simply vanish. The nation’s gambling communities would riot, not to mention the millions of dollars the government pockets from them each year. So children will always be seeing poker machines at clubs and gorgeous, successful women working in Las Vegas; the poverty and financial debt people rack up is overlooked and a profitable pass time is drilled into modern youth from the moment they are able comprehend the media swarms around them.

So how would like your child to grow up? Hard working and dedicated? Or undervaluing and wasteful? To break them away from the heavy gambling influences present here in Australia you need to show the contemporary youth the devastation gambling creates and how it will break their relationships and family life down for the long run, and push more financially stress onto you in the short run. Where’s the attraction in that?BibliographyGambling Research Australia - www.gamblingresearch.org.auGamblin in Australia - www.powerhousemuseum.com/previous/gambling.asp