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Last Bets

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Australians have always loved a punt – on the horses, card games, two up or the lotto – but in recent decades the prolific increase of poker machines, casinos and online betting has given us the sad ranking of number one in the world for per capita gambling losses. Problem gambling and addiction has had devastating consequences for thousands of people. For everyone else, betting has changed our social landscape and intruded in many areas of our lives we cannot control.

Why do Australians love to gamble? What limits should there be on betting and advertising? What can governments and communities do to counter its ill-effects?

On the next Fifth Estate, series host Sally Warhaft is joined by anti-gambling campaigner and independent Senator Nick Xenophon and author Michaela McGuire, whose new book Last Bets examines the gaps between ethics and the law.

Featuring

Nick Xenophon

Nick Xenophon is an Independent Senator. Before entering Federal politics, he served as a Senator in South Australia’s parliament. Nick first became involved in politics in the 1997 South Australian election, where he campaigned on a ‘No Pokies’ platform. He ran to simply make a point. Nick sc... Read more

Michaela McGuire

Michaela McGuire is the Director of the Emerging Writers Festival. She is the author of Last Bets: A true story of gambling, morality, and the law, the Penguin Special A Story of Grief and Apply Within: Stories of Career Sabotage. Her journalism has appeared in the Monthly, the Saturday Paper and... Read more

Sally Warhaft

Sally Warhaft is a Melbourne broadcaster, anthropologist and writer. She is the host of The Fifth Estate, the Wheeler Centre’s live series focusing on journalism, politics, media, and international relations, and The Leap Year, a Wheeler Centre podcast about Australians’ lives in the fog of ... Read more

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The Wheeler Centre

176 Little Lonsdale Street Melbourne Victoria 3000

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