YOU FIGURE IT OUT - PROBLEM GAMBLING TODAY
INTERACTIVE MULTIMEDIA CD-ROM EDUCATION KIT - $10 postage paid
Know the Odds Inc is pleased to announce the availability of its "You Figure It Out, Problem Gambling Today" education kit. The kit has been implemented on CD-ROM and is suitable for use in secondary schools.
The purpose of the kit is to educate students to:
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prevent them becoming problem gamblers; and
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understand
problem gambling in others.
The kit has been prepared with funding from the Foundation for Young Australians and the
The kit contains:
· 20 minutes of video clips
· 14 pages of teachers notes
· Probability software
· Class activities
· HTML materials and
· Web links
Outline of sections and sub-sections
These media are grouped in three sections, each of which are further divided into sub-sections:
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Problem Gambling
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Introduction
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What is problem gambling?
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Why do people gamble?
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How Gambling Works
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What exactly is gambling?
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What is the gambling industry all about?
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What is randomness?
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Effects of Problem Gambling
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Interview with Gabriela Byrne
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Advice from Gabriela Byrne
3.3 Play full video option
The user is provided with the alternative of running the full 20 minute video and displaying/printing off the full set of notes.
The kit is planned around the 20 minute video. An outline of the kit is set out below
Problem Gambling
Introduction
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Suzanne and Jennifer are going to look at the issue of problem gambling and find out why people get caught up in problem gambling and the effect it has on their lives. |
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In the |
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Suzanne asks Jacques
Boulet
, former Associate Professor at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, whether young people need to be educated about problem gambling. Jacques makes the points that there are risks associated with gambling and the young need to empower themselves by gaining some understanding of what is going on in the gambling process. |
What is problem gambling?
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Back to a street interview where Jennifer asks the students whether they consider gambling a problem like drugs and alcohol. The students are well aware that gambling can cause problems and mention addiction, poverty and loss of family. |
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Suzanne then interviews Tim Falkiner, the former commercial/legal officer with the Victorian Casino Control Authority. She asks him why we need to know about problem gambling. He answers that we need to prevent people becoming problem gamblers and to enable people to better cope where they come into a relationship with a problem gambler. |
Why do people gamble?
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Suzanne asks Tim Falkiner why people gamble if they are going to lose. Tim replies that in the short-term gamblers can win or lose but if they continue to bet against the odds for long enough they will lose. He gives an analogy with sport and describes how the feelings of anticipation, thrill and outcome - joy or disappointment - are similar in both in sport and gambling and how the ability to keep going in the face of disappointment works in gambling as it does in sport. |
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Tim describes that there is a process by which problem gambling happens, how the problem gambler finds the activity enjoyable at the start but that over time, as losses mount, the problem gambler keeps gambling in the hope of getting a big run of wins to recover all the money - but this does not happen. |
How Gambling Works
What exactly is gambling?
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She then asks Tim what gambling is and he explains that it is the staking of money on random number generators such as roulette wheels, poker machines, race tracks and sporting competitions - things that combine randomness with a definite outcome. |
What is the gambling industry all about?
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Suzanne asks if gambling is different to any other business. Tim replies that in normal transactions money is used to buy goods or services. In gambling, the focus of gambling is money. The gambler outlays money in the hope of getting back more money. |
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Jennifer asks the students in the street how the gambling industry makes so much money. They raise the issues of: addiction, that the machines are "rigged" and that "they don't really tell you the probability". |
What is randomness?
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Suzanne asks Tim why the gambling industry can expect to make money if gambling relies on randomness. Tim explains, using a roulette wheel as an example, how the gambling is structured by the gambling supplier so that the supplier enjoys an advantage over the gambler. |
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Using a computer simulation, Tim shows how over a large number of betting transactions even a small advantage for the gambling supplier will determine the cumulative result in its favour. |
AT THIS POINT, STUDENTS CAN RUN THE SIMULATION GAMES AND GET THE FEEL FOR THE WAY THE LAW OF AVERAGES (LAW OF LARGE NUMBERS) WORKS
SOFTWARE
What the software does
The accompanying software is designed to teach students the basic concept of the law of averages by having them see it in action. A failure to understand the law of averages renders a student at greater risk of becoming a problem gambler. The software is specifically designed to demonstrate - for those students who have no aptitude for mathematics - how the law of averages works against the problem gambler. The software utilizes the ability of the computer to generate random numbers and the outcome of each exercise is determined by randomness.
Opening screen
When run, a window appears in the centre of the computer screen offering four programs (each on a single screen) to run. Click on each button to run each program. Each program contains text explaining what is happening.
Random walks screen
The first program is titled: "Random Walks" and shows in a simple graphic form, clear even to students who cannot read graphs, what happens when a coin is tossed, a roulette wheel run or a poker machine played for a large number of times. The students' comprehension of this program can be tested using the Random Walks Activity sheet.
Coin toss screen
The second program is titled: "Coin toss". When the "Toss the coin" key is pressed the computer simulates tossing a coin ten thousand times and writes down the result at 10, 100, 500, 1000, 5000 and 10,000 tosses. The key should be pressed a number of times and students should note the tendency for the percentage variation to diminish the more times the coin is tossed.
Rain on Table screen
The third program is titled: "Rain on Table". In this exercise the student is looking down on a yellow table. When the key marked "Rain - 10,000 drops" is pressed it starts raining and 10,000 dark-blue raindrops land on the table randomly. The student then examines how many raindrops fall on each side of the table if the table is divided equally by a line down the middle and how many raindrops fall on each side of a line drawn dividing the table into two unequal parts having areas in the ratio of 18:19. This is a useful way of visualising how a house advantage operates.
Pokies Graph Screen
The fourth program diagrams 20 players playing poker machines. Each coloured line tracks a poker machine player playing 100,000 lines on a 90% player return stand-alone machine. Effects of Problem Gambling
Inteview with Gabriela Byrne, former problem gambler and problem gambling counsellor
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Jennifer tells of how a few years ago one of her parents got caught up in problem gambling and that it really affected Jennifer's life and the life of her family. |
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Suzanne then interviews, Gabriela Byrne, who was formerly addicted to poker machine gambling and who now runs a program for problem gamblers. Suzanne asks Gabriela how problem gambling affected her life. Gabriela describes the problems caused to her and her family by her mood swings and money problems. She makes the point that the greatest loss was not the money but the change in her personality. |
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Suzanne asks Gabriela why people become problem gamblers. Gabriela replies that people normally start because they have some personal problem, in her case, she was unhappy in her job. The distraction of gambling gave
her a
temporary solution to her problem. Also, she became addicted to the chemical high which gambling brings about. |
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Suzanne asks for clarification and Gabriela goes on to explain how the environment of the gaming room gave excitement, also how she needed to bet more lines and more money to maintain that level of excitement and how she also got excitement from diverting money from other sources to put into gambling. She wanted the feeling of excitement over and over again. Suzanne asks Gabriela what she is doing now and she explains how she is trying to help other problem gamblers and to inform people that gambling has the potential to ruin lives, like it nearly did hers. |
Advice from Gabriela Byrne
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Suzanne asks Gabriela what she would say to young people today. Gabriela replies that she hopes that young people who watch the video will make an educated choice and not fall into the trap which almost ruined her life. |
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Jennifer and Suzanne wind up the video by telling their contemporaries that it is up to them to figure it out. Jennifer returns to mention that there are further written materials and software and invites the viewers to visit the Know the Odds Inc website at www.knowodds.org. |
Video Producer
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Photos |
Content |
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The video content and original video was shot by Yi Long Productions under the direction of |
Technical Specification
The kit will only run under Microsoft Windows as the simulation programs are written in VisualBasic .
Minimum computer requirements are:
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600 MHz Intel Pentium III processor or equivalent
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Windows 98 SE (4.10.2222A), Windows 2000, Windows XP and above
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200 MB available disk space (more, if the program is copied to and run from the computer)
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Optical drive capable of reading a CD-ROM
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Acrobat Reader
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QuickTime Player
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Any 32 bit Internet Browser
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Minimum screen resolution 800 by 600.
TESTIMONIALS ON THE PRECEEDING VIDEO/NOTES/SOFTWARE KIT VERSION
"You Figure
It
Out" will certainly stimulate debate on the issue of gambling. It is an area that needs to be explored and discussed in critical depth in all classrooms.
- Nick
Konstantanatos
, Senior English Teacher,
The video is a most useful and carefully constructed introduction for students about the issue of problem gambling. My students were involved, in particular, by the interview with a former poker machine addict who details the impacts of problem gambling on herself and her family. For them, this human dimension greatly stimulated their thinking about the issue and the choices that they have available to them in their own lives. -
Noelene
Williams, Head of Grant House,
The information in the video of "You Figure It Out" was well researched and clearly presented in an interesting and thought-provoking way. Following the video there was much discussion about the effects of gambling. - Jane Cowan, Year 10 Coordinator, Sacre Coeur.
The kit is a good curricula resource for schools, which is not preaching not to gamble. It is about looking at a range of things and informing kids so that they can make their own decisions. It is also making them aware of issues on the health and welfare side. It's a good cross-curricula device with information on maths and probability with software to test the odds of gambling on EGMs . For example, the more you play, the further away from the "breakeven" line you get. What is important about the kit is that it is not just an issue for the health class or the social science class but that it is comprehensive in its approach. There wasn't really anything else around that does this and that is presented by kids. It is appropriate as a resource for kids to make up their own minds. Cr John Fry, Mayor of Whittlesea
It has taken a private organization, self-funded, living off the smell of an oily rag because they certainly have not been taking funds from the gaming industry to actually produce this video .... The video which you will see shortly is very simple. Against the $600 million of advertising spent by the gaming industry saying, "Everybody is a winner - you can be a winner." - this video tells the truth. I think it was Solznehitsyn who said one word of truth is more powerful than all the propaganda. This is one word of truth. Rev Tim Costello
TO PURCHASE A KIT
If you wish to purchase a Kit click on Order Form to display a printable order form which can be completed and forwarded with a cheque to Know the Odds Inc - details on the form.
RECOMMENDED FURTHER MATERIAL
Gabriela Byrne, a member of Know the Odds Inc, who is interviewed in the above video has produced a 30-minute video tape as part of her "Free Yourself Program". The tape, titled "My Passionate Affair with the Pokermachine " (Video - $AUS$24.95 plus postage), is a frank account by Gabriela and her family of how they, as a family, suffered through Gabriela's addiction to poker machines and of how the family, through its courage, perseverence and faith, survived intact. This video is not about victims, but survivors. The kit can be ordered from the Free Yourself Website .
Further details may be obtained from Know the Odds Inc
Go back to Know the Odds Inc home page
Created: 8 April 2001
Last Modified: 7 January 2008
Author/Maintainer: Know the Odds Inc
- e-mail address: knowodds@knowodds.org
Internet address: http://www.knowodds.org