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FOUR out of every five problem gamblers in South Australia are addicted to pokies - despite the growth of online and sports betting. A profile of problem gamblers treated by the Flinders University School of Medicine shows less than 1 per cent said they had a problem gambling online but 83.9 per cent admitted to poker machine addiction. Flinders University Professor of Psychiatry Malcolm Battersby said experts did not know why a boom in sports betting and online gambling had not yet translated to an increase in problem gamblers.

There are hundreds of virtual slot machine and poker games on Facebook and other sites that are almost identical to adult gambling games.

"Slot machines you see in casinos today could soon be things of the past. Not in 20 years, but in five. Experts predict that the games themselves aren't likely to change. They'll just get more portable, as gaming tries to keep pace with customers used to being entertained by iPads and smartphones. Instead of players sitting at big banks of slot machines, they'll gamble on iPads installed in restaurants, bars and other parts of the casino, much like video poker screens are today, but portable. "

In April, Wynn was in talks with Zynga (NASDAQ:ZNGA), the world's largest social gaming developer, to form a strategic online partnership. (See our previous post: Wynn Takes Hard Look At Online Gambling Market With Zynga) Speculation is rife that Wynn is interested in partnering with Zynga for this project. Zynga enjoys a dominating position in the social gaming industry and has about 232 million average monthly active users across 166 countries.

"Even as Apple's storefront plays host to an increasing number of casino apps, the company isn't taking a cut of sales from gambling in its apps, Tom Neumayr, a spokesman for Apple, said. Games are permitted in the App Store as long as they comply with local laws, said Neumayr, who declined to comment specifically on Big Fish. "Apple wants to keep arms' length from this," said Paul Thelen, CEO of Big Fish. "They don't want to be the middleman in a gambling operation.""

"THERE is now one poker machine for every 108 people in Australia, putting the nation in the top 10 of international gambling hotspots alongside Monaco and some Caribbean islands. Australia also has the seventh-highest total number of gaming machines, with 200,057 in pubs and clubs, industry figures show."

"A Fairfield hotel that doubles as crisis accommodation for vulnerable people has won its battle to install 50 pokie machines. The win has horrified anti-gambling advocates, who believe the highly visible Victorian-style hotel will attract problem gamblers. See your ad here The Grandview Hotel proprietor Daniel El Fahkri appealed to VCAT after Darebin City Council rejected his application last year, arguing that the only way he could afford to significantly renovate the deteriorating 19th century building was to fund it with pokie machine expenditure."

At a June 26 press event, Zynga announced its plan to help millions more make this grievous life mistake available as a video game with its new game Zynga Slots. It's a slots game where you don't actually have any chance of winning any money back. (But did the slot machine gambler ever have any hope of coming out ahead? Probably not.) The important thing is that Zynga Slots lets players experience pathetically dumping their money down a black hole just like at a real casino, with such premium downloadable content as "Cup of Coins" ($9.99), "Bucket of Coins" ($19.99), and "Vault of Coins" ($99.99). And if that just isn't enough coins, there's always the Platinum Purchase Program for $500 and up.

JULIA GILLARD has walked away from a deal on problem gambling with independent MP Andrew Wilkie in favour of a strategy to shore up her own and the Labor government's position. Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/wilkie-cant-take-a-trick-20120121-1qb6t.html#ixzz1k7okpzAM