"I think Know the Odds is going to be a significant organisation. I do hope that it will receive both financial backing and support from a whole range of funding bodies and trusts that are neither government nor industry and I think that is both, of course, its strength and its weakness. Its weakness only insofar as it is going to be very hard to attract that funding and maintain it. Its strength for obvious reasons that there are very few groups today that can do their work in the area of gaming without government funding or funding from the industry.
And I think in that lies the story, that for education to be impartial, for education to be that which stands in an independent space, on solid ground without being subtly scripted, subtly shaped, by the power of the dollar, there needs to be this sense of independence that we can't have our funding cut off.
And I think there are people in this room tonight who know something of that story. It is eloquent testimony to the power of the gambling industry's dollar and of course the power of the government dollar because the fact that much government revenue comes from the industry itself. So I think Know the Odds is a unique organisation, a brave organisation, some might say a financially foolish organisation to expect the miracle of funding.
But as David Ben-Gurion, the founder of the modern state of Israel and the drafter of the constitution said, "If a person doesn't believe in miracles, then he is not a realist." And there is a nice little irony in that in that it will take some miracles, I guess, to find funding but such is the importance of the objectivity of this educational work, its freedom, its independence of spirit, its impartiality, that you have to be a realist to believe in those miracles and to say, this is necessary, this is what our young people deserve and what they need.
The odds do matter. Lots of people, lots of intelligent people simply do not understand probability. They find it incomprehensible that if they put their dollar in the pokies ninety-nine times and lose that there is no greater chance of winning the hundredth time. There would be very few intelligent people who would actually understand that principle. And that is one of the reasons why it is very important to teach young people the odds.
The reality therapy of the odds will actually help them understand something of the gloss, the seduction of the industry that says: "Everybody is a winner!" That says that gambling is a short cut to finding your way to the prosperity and success and cultural goals that all of us aspire to, or most of us I guess.
Young people can only be armed to expose that if they know how odds work, how probability works, and that's why I think that the videos Know the Odds intend to produce, and the work they plan to do educationally, is so refreshingly simple, so refreshingly, one might say, breathtakingly, honest. It simply puts the facts before people; it does not argue a position either pro or anti gambling. Some of us do do that. I am one who does. Know the Odds simply says, "We will actually let young people try and understand the principles mathematically that work here and they can make up their own minds."
Well, I hope the educational videos are a great success; I hope that they do have a huge impact on young people because my own view is that young people are already being targeted in very subtle ways by those who are promoting gambling. If you have been watching the latest - they are brilliant ads. Has anyone seen them? Ads emphasising friendship, belonging. Two old blokes who have gone to the club for sixty years who can set their clock by leaving home together: friendship, loyalty, stability in a world where all that stuff is so ephemeral. In a world where we don't know who our friends are. We actually don't know where we belong. And it is the pokies that have given them that friendship, that stability, that fifty years or more of loyalty.
Of course, lots of the other ads are saying, "We of course know that the product is stacked against you winning but we will package the spiritual heart-hunger that you long for: friendship, belonging, community, friendship in a package that says you will associate with your deepest heart-hungers our pub, our club, our pokies." So it is very clever, it is very powerful, it is very seductive and it is aimed at our youth. Many of you who have visited the casino know that Shane Warne and James Heard's pictures aren't up there to attract the Asian high-rollers. Their pictures are up there to attract the young people. Powerful, very appealing. How do I know? I am a parent. My two sons who think that Shane Warne is part of the Holy Trinity, that he can do absolutely anything. They want to go and see his picture at the casino; they would love to see the continuous footage at the Sports Bar. How do they know all about it? All the kids their age know all about it. A powerful, seductive picture.
And so young people's only defence will be if they actually know that the odds do matter and are given the facts. And that is why I feel very pleased that this organisation "Know the Odds" has come into existence and that it is going to do the work it does and I wish it, and particularly Tim Falkiner, all the best."
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