NSW: Monopoly pokie to hit pubs and clubs

AAP General News (Australia)
08-20-2001
NSW: Monopoly pokie to hit pubs and clubs

An anti-gambling group has warned the evolution of the world's most popular board game
-- Monopoly -- into a gaming machine sets a dangerous precedent.

One of Australia's biggest gaming machine manufacturers, Stargames, has begun marketing
a version of a gaming machine based on Monopoly.

But New South Wales Council on Problem Gambling president Reverend CHESTER CARTER says
transforming Monopoly into a game which uses real money is not as harmless as it appears.

He says the commercialisation of icons -- particularly childhood icons like Monopoly
-- is dangerous.

Rev CARTER says the lines are blurred when a person is playing a gaming machine because
they are devoid of any sort of logic or reason and says in their minds, the real money
becomes Monopoly money.

Stargames managing director JOHN ROUSE says gaming machines like Monopoly, which will
hit NSW pubs and clubs by September, herald a shift in gaming machines towards a new form
of entertainment.

He says people are not only paying or playing to gamble, they are paying for an entertaining
experience.

AAP RTV he/rp/jtb/jn

KEYWORD: MONOPOLY (SYDNEY)

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