Last week’s piece on the pokies drew an interesting response from Melbourne barrister Tim Falkiner, who knows a thing or two about these Dalek look-alikes.

Formerly the commercial/legal officer with the Victorian Casino Control Authority, he has studied the historical, mathematical, economic, political, psychological and social aspects of the commercial gambling industry and problem gambling and since 1996 has been chairman of Know the Odds (KTO), an organisation which aims through education to prevent the harmful effects of problem gambling, and whose patron is another Tim (Costello).

After asking if there was a news blackout on the subject of how pokies really work, Tim Falkiner supplied me with a wad of information which would never fit in a year of these columns, but he helpfully stated that, “The guts of the matter is that reel gaming machines incorporate an old racketeering cheating device which limits payouts and makes the machines look to the players as though they are just missing all the time”.

So am I supposed to be surprised?

I quite enjoy getting hit
As one of those Aussies who, not to our own credit, but purely through the effluxion of time are now respectfully referred to as seniors, I receive a copy of the quarterly magazine News for Seniors, aimed at a readership heavily dominated by age pensioners and part pensioners.

I come into the latter category mainly by virtue of my tenuous foothold on the Daily’s payroll, thanks presumably to some evidence that after more than half a century as a Sunshine Coast columnist, I still have the odd reader. (Some of them, admittedly, are decidedly odd.)

I find it astonishing that in these days of online everything, AAT receives hundreds of “hits” each time it appears in the Daily online.

At first when hearing this, I didn’t like the idea of being “hit”. I had visions of dark-suited underworld characters with fedora hats and violin cases, but the cognoscenti at the Daily online have explained that a hit is someone clicking on to a headline to read the attached article.

But back to News for Seniors. Usually the magazine’s content is hardly riveting, unless, like me, you find it useful to check up on what you should be getting each fortnight on pension day. (I make the distinction here between “should” and “would like”.)

The autumn issue, though, is a stand-out, thanks to a story headed “So what are you doing today?” It relates the astonishing achievement of Phyllis Turner, who at 95 was recently awarded a Masters degree in medical science from Adelaide University. This makes her the world’s oldest person to receive a Masters degree by research.

Needless to say, she’s in high demand for media interviews, but even such ordeals haven’t dulled her sprightly sense of humour. She enjoyed relating that when she presented her student ticket for admission to a cinema and was refused, she trotted out her pension card.

Full marks to Phyllis, and to the magazine, for reminding us younger oldies that there is still a life after qualifying for the OBE (Over Bloody Eighty).
rich.29@bigpond.net.au