Earlier this year, the gambling industry called me unethical after I reported on its gigantic pokie convention.
Which was a little weird, considering Australians lose about $15 billion a year to pokies. Did they not want me looking into why?
🫵 Poking the bear: As someone who enjoys poking the bear, it was one of the most exciting pieces of reporting I have done this year. It also showed me something important.
When you simply report what you see in industries that usually operate out of sight, their first response is often outrage.
It also became pretty clear that a lot of people did not even realise a major pokie and gambling convention like this existed.
🎰 What happened Did you know Australia has a pokie convention? A literal sales event for the gambling industry.
I didn’t, until I stumbled across it while scrolling through events I could potentially cover.
So I thought, why not go take a look at an industry Australians lose more than $15 billion in 2022–23.
My first report on the Australasian Gaming Expo was pretty straightforward. I simply described what I saw and heard on the floor, including pokie salespeople pitching their machines to buyers from leagues clubs, pubs and RSLs from across the country.
🗣️Talk talk: They were not exactly chatty with me.
I was clearly a journalist, approved to cover the event by the team behind it and also wore a media pass. Not everyone was keen for a conversation.
But one salesperson did share two of the major selling points they try to lock in:
Getting patrons to understand exactly what they are chasing.
Creating games within games, meaning features layered inside other features.
🤬The pushback: After I posted the video, the organisers emailed me accusing me of misrepresentation, misinformation and incorrect facts.
One of their main complaints was that I had not contacted the organisers for a bit of PR spin before publishing.
But here’s the thing: I literally signed up as media on their website, told them who I was, where I worked, and they approved my entry for free.
🤔 What I could’ve said: The irony is that their angry response gave me the chance to talk about things I did not even get to in my original report.
Like how many of the gameplay mechanics I saw on display are widely recognised as being specifically designed to keep people playing longer and losing more money.
I also laid out some gambling harm statistics including:
Regular pokie players can lose around $400 a month.
On high-intensity machines, players can lose more than $1,500 in a single hour.
Australians lose more to gambling per person than any other country on Earth.
Almost half of all gamblers, 46 percent, are classified as being at some risk of gambling harm.
🤝The bottom line
So when industry figures accused me of violating ethical and journalistic standards, what I actually heard was, please stop showing people how this industry really works.
I am looking forward to seeing which industry I can piss off next.