A jaw-dropping account of how one company came to own every poker machine in the state of Tasmania – and the cost to democracy, the public purse and problem gamblers and their families.
The story begins with the toppling of a premier, and ends with David Walsh, the man behind MONA, taking an eccentric stand against pokie machines and the political status quo.
It is a story of broken politics and back-room deals. It shows how giving one company the licence to all the poker machines in Tasmania has led to several hundred million dollars of profits (mainly from problem gamblers) being diverted from public use, through a series of questionable and poorly understood deals.
Losing Streak is a meticulous, compelling case study in governance failure, which has implications for pokies reform throughout Australia.
James Boyce is the acclaimed author of Van Diemen’s Land, 1835 and Born Bad. His books have been shortlisted for almost every major Australian literary award and he has won the Tasmania Book Prize on two occasions. He is also a professional social worker, who worked for many years in social policy and research and has been involved in the poker-machine debate for nearly twenty years.
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James Boyce is the author of Born Bad (2014), 1835 (2011) and Van Diemen’s Land (2008). Van Diemen’s Land, won the Tasmania Book Prize and the Colin Roderick Award and was shortlisted for the NSW, Victorian and Queensland premiers’ literary awards, as well as the Prime Minister’s award. Tim Flannery described it as “a brilliant book and a must-read for anyone interested in how land shapes people.” 1835, won the Age Book of the Year Award and was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Award, the Western Australian Premier’s Book Award, the Adelaide Festival Award for Literature and the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award. The Sunday Age described it as “A first-class piece of historical writing”. James Boyce wrote the Tasmania chapter for First Australians, the companion book to the acclaimed SBS TV series. He has a Ph D from the University of Tasmania, where he is an honorary research associate of the School of Geography and Environmental Studies.