The prevalence of slot machines – known arsenic pokies – successful pubs and clubs crossed the state and betting connected athletics has created a civilization of wagering

It is simply a quiescent nighttime successful Fairfield, successful Sydney’s occidental suburbs. Inside a tiny ceramic building, a twelve Gamblers Anonymous members assistance themselves to coffee, beverage and miniature nutrient pies. The gathering is taking spot successful a suburb that has 1 of the city’s lowest median incomes, and highest levels of gambling losses. A 5th of the authorities of New South Wales’s 25 astir profitable gaming clubs are here, according to government data.

One of these clubs, Fairfield Returned and Services League (RSL), is conscionable a two-minute locomotion away. It is simply a gathering wholly astatine likelihood with the humble flat blocks and shabby bid presumption nearby. A pedestrian walkway wrong is lined with palms and ferns, it has an elaborate fountain, a expansive lobby. It seems incongruous, that is, until you realise that its surroundings are its humor supply. Inside the club, conscionable retired of vision of the street, are hundreds of gaming machines. Fairfield RSL and Clubs Australia did not respond to requests for comment.