Ep120. The Sound of $16 Billion Lost: Neil Walshe Takes on the Pokies

About this episode

Neil Walshe discusses the design of poker machines and their impact on gambling behavior.

Are poker machines designed to keep you losing? When Neil Walshe discovered that poker machines are designed without losing sounds, he realised the silence wasn’t accidental — it was engineered. What followed was a radical and eye-opening mission: from purchasing an illegal machine through organised crime channels to experimentally adding a simple losing sound to test how awareness shifts behaviour. In Australia alone, poker machines drain approximately $16 billion annually — but the real cos...

People in this episode

Host: Ron Isherwood

Guest: Neil Walshe

Topics covered

• gambling addiction
• poker machines
• behavioral psychology
• Australia
• mental health
• organised crime

Keywords

• poker machines
• gambling
• addiction
• behavioral change
• Australia
• losing sounds
• mental health

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: organised crime

Products: poker machines

Places: Australia

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