Hooked

How did Big Gambling become too big to fail and too powerful to adequately regulate? Australians lose around $32 billion on legal forms of gambling each year, the most of any country in the world, while the industry rakes in $244 billion through poker machines, lotteries, casinos and the exponential rise in sports betting. In Hooked, Quentin Beresford explores how gambling expanded from a highly restricted recreational activity to a mega industry. He asks, what’s the balance between entertainment and social harm? What does the crisis reveal about the troubling intersection between business and politics? And, finally, how can the gambling industry be reined in?With a cast of questionable characters, iconic corporate brands, eye-watering greed, political subterfuge and the many state and federal politicians who have sold out to the gambling industry, Hooked exposes the underbelly of gambling in Australia.