Groupthink

Posts Tagged Clubs Australia

An Important Message from the Australian Pharmaceutical Industry

Oct 27

Posted by Ross Sharp in Corporations, Media, Politics, Society | No Comments

Our Fellow Australians,

We of the Australian pharmaceutical industry and its related interests and concerns are alarmed at the Federal government’s recently announced policy intentions seeking to introduce mandatory dosage recommendations on prescription and non-prescription medicines and medicinal products.

It is our firm belief that introducing such restrictions on products that are legally and freely available to any Australian within current age regulations will seriously impact on the ability of the Australian pharmaceutical industry and its related interests and concerns to continue operating on the level of profitability necessary to viably invest in much-needed further research into the medical, scientific and pharmaceutical fields that are vital to the continuing health, well-being and welfare of not only all Australians, but people throughout the world.

Our independently conducted research has concluded that the introduction of such mandatory dosage restrictions and recommendations may potentially cost the industry upwards of $13 billion in lost research and development investments per annum, which carries with it dire implications for the average Australian citizen’s health and their ability to treat their health issues and concerns responsibly and independently of government interference. By restricting such current freedoms, the government also fails to grasp the enormous cost and pressure such a policy of restrictions will place upon the national health care system as more and more people, unable to responsibly self-medicate will, potentially, consume the time and attentions of health professionals on relatively trivial matters that would be best served on those far more serious.

The Federal government’s current policy intentions signify not only an interference in an individual’s right to choose their own treatment regime as their needs may dictate, but a breach of confidentiality between the recommendations of health professionals and their patients. Therefore, it is our most sincere intention to continue to aggressively protest the introduction of such a policy by the current government as we believe it represents not only a highly unfair and discriminatory imposition on our industry and its related interests and concerns, but a violation of every Australian citizen’s right to live and make decisions about the course of their lives unhindered by government intervention and restrictions.

It is down paths such as these that the seeds of totalitarianism are sown.

Sincerely,
The Australian Pharmaceutical Industry and its Related Interests and Concerns

Tags: , , , , , ,

What is the “game”?

Apr 13

Posted by Ross Sharp in Corporations, Society, Technology | 12 Comments

I’m sitting outside the “gaming” room of my local pub, reading the paper and having a quiet drink. The ATM is nearby. Over the course of about thirty minutes, one guy comes out of the room four times to go to the ATM.

I think to myself, “How much money do they have to go to the ATM four times in thirty minutes?”.

……

Few years ago.

I’m inside the “gaming” room of the same pub.

My idea of “playing” a poker machine is to stick whatever dollar coins I may have in my pocket to see if I can win the cost of a couple beers back.

Mostly it doesn’t.

I shove a few coins in, staying standing, I won’t be there long. There’s a guy next to me. He says “Look” and I do, and he’s won a “jackpot”, about thirteen thousand dollars.

“Shit!”, I say, “Well done”.

My couple of dollars spent, I go to the bar, grab a drink and one of the papers they leave out for patrons, and go outside.

About twenty minutes later, I go back inside to return the paper (the “Courier Mail” doesn’t take long to read, believe me). The guy who won thirteen grand is still there, playing another machine, five bucks a spin.

……

Couple of years ago.

I’m in the “high-roller” room of a Gold Coast casino. A mate of mine makes in-house training videos for the Star City casino in Sydney, and he’s been asked to make one for this place and he’s asked if I’d like to be in it. “500 bucks for the day’s work and you get fed”, he says. “Done!”, I say, and then arrange to take a day’s leave from my “real” job.

You know what a “high-roller’s” room looks like?

A 150 buck a night motel room. At least this one did.

We’ve been assigned a couple of floor staff to look over us as we go about our business, make sure we don’t pinch anything.

“What is that worth?”, I ask one of them, pointing to a flat, embossed piece of plastic about the size of a slimline calculator under glass at a table.

“$50,000”, comes the answer.

“Shit”, I reply.

“These people”, I ask, “These people who spend fifty grand on just one bet. Do they actually enjoy it? I mean, are they having a good time?”

“They’re very serious about it. No. I don’t think they’re having fun. Not in the true sense of the word”.

“So what’s the bloody point?”

“They have money. That’s all.”

This video we’re making, it features a number of potentially troublesome scenarios that the casino floor staff need to be able to deal with. The woman who’s been playing for twelve hours straight and has soiled herself. The aggressive fucker who thinks a particular machine is his and his alone and abuses anyone who’s got it before him (that was one of my parts). The guy who’s trying to sell his mobile phone for a few extra bucks …

“Really?”, I ask the minder.

“Yes. Mobiles. Coats. Shoes.”

“Shoes?”

“Yes. Shoes.”

“Shit”, I respond.

I tell her that a few months previous, I shoved a couple coins in a machine and it went on a roll and I ended up with three hundred bucks.

“That’s how it starts”, she replies.

“No”, I say, “I took the money and went shopping. Bought a new bathmat and some luggage. And an electric toothbrush.”

She laughed.

……

Christmas, last year.

I’m in Sydney, visiting the parents, catching up with some friends.

They live in Sydney’s south-west.

I go up to the local pub one morning about 11.30. It’s a shithouse of a pub at the best of times, and certainly one to be avoided at night. My father told me that one time in the 1970’s he saw a guy get beaten to death with a pool cue one night in this place.

I have to walk through the “gaming” room to get to the bar. There’s hardly anyone there. Ideal. A quiet drink and a read of the paper on a nice, warm morning.

I order a drink.

And then …

In the corner.

That’s the machine for me. It’s practically got my name on it.

I drop six bucks in.

Bliss.

It’s an “Addams Family” pinball machine. With two levels of multiball!

This is the first pinball machine I’ve seen in a pub in maybe a decade.

And it’s been about that long since I’ve played one.

After two games, my 52 year old wrists feel like they’re about to crack in half.

And I have seven games left to play.

“This is how it starts”, I think to myself.

I play the seven games.

……

Last night. My local pub. Early evening. The “gaming room”.

I grab a beer, get a buck change, walk over to a machine and drop it in. Nothing.

I get a paper off the bar, take my drink and go outside.

A guy comes out.

“Winning?”, he asks, just making small talk while he has a smoke break.

“Not playing”, I reply.

“They’re bastards, those things”, he says, “that bloody Red Barron machine, mate, two hundred bucks, mate. Two hundred fucking bucks it got outta me. Fucking thing …”

They used to call them “one-armed bandits”.

Then they took away the arm, and called it a “game”.

He stubs out his cigarette, goes to the ATM, takes out some cash and goes back into the room.

To “play”.

To “play” a “game”.

It’d be funny if it weren’t so fucking sad.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Residual gamble lose

Sep 3

Posted by Ross Sharp in Federal election 2010, Politics, Society | 8 Comments

I’m getting a little fed up with how, when a government, a politician or political party announce some policy initiative, something that may actually be worthwhile doing, the announcement seems to be inevitably reported as “outraging some powerful lobby industry” or other, and being a thing that will tip society over the teetering edge of civilisation as we know it.

Yet the abyss beckons according to Clubs Australia executive director Anthony Ball …

… said the undertaking to implement a mandatory pre-commitment system for all poker machines across Australia as well as to limit ATM cash withdrawals to just $250 a day were completely untested.

He said the measures would close rural clubs, cost jobs, inconvenience recreational gamblers and club users, and do nothing to alleviate problem gambling.

“Julia Gillard wrote to Clubs Australia and committed herself to consultation in developing gambling policy.

“That commitment has been broken. We won’t just take that sitting down.”

Oh, really? Well, la-di-da.

Does Ball truly think anyone’s going to swallow that scenario?

Does he really think that he’s going to be able to persuade the remaining three independents, all of whom have strong, personal connections to their country electorates and have very probably heard the experiences of problem gamblers firsthand, that “inconveniencing recreational gamblers” to ATM withdrawals of $250 a day at their local club or pub will signal the beginning of the end of the industry or the devastation of their local communities?

I would suggest people who are gambling two hundred fifty bucks a day are not quite in the category of “recreational gamblers”, would you think?

And if they can’t get more cash from the ATM at their pub or club, they’re probably just going to wander off down the street to the one at the fucking bank on the corner.

I have no moral objections to poker machines, or judgements to cast on those who play them. I’ve played the things, though not to any significant extent I must admit, and certainly for no significant amount of money, a few coins now and then, or a five buck note if I’m feeling audacious. I find them almost unbearably tedious after about five minutes, as there’s nothing one is required to do beyond pressing a button and watching some fucking wheels spin round until you get heartily congratulated for winning a “top result” of fifty fucking cents, and I would drop to my knees invoking the one billion names of God in thanks if my local pub would just put a couple P!I!N!B!A!L!L! M!A!C!H!I!N!E!S in the damn room to liven it up some.

But Ball may as well eat his own arse with a one-tined fork from a circus trapeze if he thinks his industry’s lobbying efforts are going to cut it the same type of sweet ‘n’ easy deals with these independents that it gets from the major party players.

For we have heard these “major party players” for years now, gibber on about the need to address “problem gambling”, to address the yadda, yadda, yadda of this and the yadda, yadda, yadda of that, and invariably all they manage to come up with is just another fucking sticker on a fucking machine, or just another fucking poster on a wall divider, or just another fucking “helpline”, or just another fucking website, or some fucking conference, and all of it, every word spoke, every word written, is little more than lip-service paid to the ether from soft-bellied, mouth-breathing arseclowns grown fat on the proceeds of human misery who think the “collateral damage” done by gambling is but an inconvenience akin to a fart in a confessional compared to the great, greasy fistfuls of shiny, shiny coin to be had …

… All the better to use for the announcement of yet another brand new rail-link or some other such fantastic imagining, I suppose …

No, I very much doubt these independents are going to be swayed by a “lobby group” like Clubs Australia to their cause, as the cause simply amounts to, “We demand the right to exploit human frailties and weaknesses to the fullest extent we can in return for a buck.”, and I don’t think those being lobbied share much in common with the likes of Joe Tripodi or Eddie Obeid or any of the other reptilian party hacks from the dank backrooms of Sussex Street, do you think?.

The independents are the lobby group now, and the lobby group that matters it would seem, the lobby group that gets to call all the shots it damn well likes, and if one of the shots they’re calling is for measures to be taken to regulate poker machine gambling in such a way that it may help reduce some of the problems caused, I think it’s a shot long overdue to be fired.

And if they manage to get that up and running, then all power to ‘em.

Tags: , , ,