Independent, The (London): GAMBLING REFORMS: Australia counts social cost of deregulation

AUSTRALIA PIONEERED the deregulation of gambling in the 1990s, filling state coffers with billions of pounds in taxes. But the country is now home to more gambling addicts per head than anywhere in the world with the average adult spending pounds 400 a year.

At the hard edge of this epidemic are the "pokies" - glorified fruit machines offering instant jackpots of up to pounds 4,000. They have become an ever-present in the country's pubs and clubs, with Australians spending more on the pokies each year (pounds 32bn) than they do on food.

The spread of casinos and fruit machines has propelled gambling into one of the government's top earners raking in up to 10 per cent of tax revenue, according to the Australian Tax Research Foundation.

The unchecked growth of the betting industry has created an estimated 330,000 "problem gamblers" - those with a habit that costs them more than pounds 4,800 a year. It is estimated that gambling addicts now account for at least 2 per cent of the adult population of the country.

The everyday impact of the epidemic has been seen in the courts, where there has been an upsurge in the number of bankruptcies, embezzlement and theft cases, as punters fuel their addiction to taking a flutter.

Even the Prime Minister, John Howard, who backed the loosening of the laws, has questioned the cost: "There's no doubt that we have an absolute deluge of poker machines in Australia. It's one world record of which I am not in the least bit proud," he said in 2001.