Another Addiction
When I first landed on these fair shores some 18 years ago most pubs had a pokie or two. A pokie is an electronic gambling machine on which you play…you guessed it, poker. Maximum prize $500.00
These machines are now pretty rare. In fact I haven’t seen a single one since I got here eight months ago. All the pubs still have pokies though, but they have morphed into what us Brits would call a fruit machine or in the US, slots. They have now evolved into a whole arena of flashing lights, whizzes and bells where, in NSW, you can win $10,000.00. In some bars, the machines are ‘linked’ and the prize gets bigger, quicker!
So popular are the pokies that pubs build special rooms for them where the avid gambler can relax with a ciggie (until 2nd July at least) a beer and basically feed coins into the machines. Not content with only accepting coins, the machines also take all paper money too. Well, I say paper money. Here the paper money is actually plastic. They are dead easy to play. There are no holds or nudges. Push the button, you either win or lose.
Back in the UK, I never gave these machines a second glance, only occasionally dropping a couple of quid in whilst I wait for the idiot behind the bar to realise why he’s actually paid to work there. “Hello! Service!”
I digress.
So you can understand my surprise when I realised that since coming here, I actually enjoy playing these machines now. Whilst I haven’t got to the point where I would sell the silverware or rob an ol’ dear for her pension to pay for my addiction, there was the one occasion where I walked home cos I had fed my bus fare to the big greedy machine in the corner. It flashed it’s lights mockingly at me as I shivered in the pouring rain outside, destitute.
Alright, alright, I’m hardly destitute but there are many who are. You see, gambling is another major problem here. The machines have stickers on them. CALL NOW – WE CAN HELP. Of course the numbers are so small you can’t actually see them, but plenty people get their wages and immediately spend it on the pokies. The unemployed get the social cheque an immediately spend it on the pokies. You pop your $5.00 in and look over to the machine next to you where a man with cobwebs on his chair as he hasn’t moved in days has just popped another in $100.00. You check out his credit and it says something like 2514653 ! Holy Mother of God, that’s like, err, umm, well, loads of money!
You see, to ease the pain of losing your money, the machine doesn’t actually register your hard earned cash in $$$$, it turns it into points. Just like casino’s take your cash and give you chips. It makes losing your money so much easier. This weekend, my flatmate saw a guy lose $3,000.00 !!
Anyway, once again I’m not sure where I’m going with this post, so I’m off to the pub to lose a few dollars on my favourite machine, The Queen of the Nile.
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