Gambling. It has been an Australian past-time for such a long time that it’s pretty much part of our identity. From the Melbourne cup to the 2-up tradition on ANZAC Day and having a slap on the pokies at the pub, it’s an activity that’s hard to escape, but it’s not all fun and games! According to the Greens, New South Wales has the highest density of poker machines in the world and the highest gambling losses per person outside of places like Macau, while figures released by the Victorian Commission for Liquor and Gambling Regulation have revealed that last year Victorians lost $2.726 billion on poker machines. So how did we get here?

For a deeper look into the issue, we were joined by Charles Livingston, an Associate Professor in the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University.