Gaming and Betting in Australia, 1788-1983: A Social and Cultural Analysis

Abstract

This study traces the history of gaming and betting in Australia from 1788 to 1983 with the objectives of examining the development and changing nature of these gambling practices in Australia, and of analysing the attitudes of Australian society towards them. The study demonstrates that the gambling practices transplanted from Britain became entrenched in a colonial society which was not subject to the pressure of industrialisation, urbanisation and the reforming values of a new urban middle class. Gaming and betting were pursued vigorously by the lower classes and by the gentry, whose patronage and supervision of gambling helped provide the practices with an air of legitimacy. By the end of the nineteenth century a vocal middle-class reform movement, with urban and protestant based values, advocated reforms which would outlaw the established gambling practices. But this group achieved little, until an increasing public profile for gaming and betting, due to the emergence of gambling entrepreneurs, and a weakening of gentry political influence combined with the changed political structure of post-federation Australia, created a climate conducive to moral reform.