双语阅读｜什么？世界上最爱赌的竟是澳大利亚人？
A BILLBOARD promoting huge cash jackpots hangs over the highway approaching Revesby Workers’ Club, in a rundown suburb in western Sydney. Cafés, restaurants, a hairdresser and a gym are all housed inside the refurbished block. Yet the rooms full of electronic slot machines are among its chief attractions. Rows of ageing punters sip beer and smoke cigarettes as they await a payout from the “pokies”, as the machines are known. Most will leave disappointed: gamblers lose A$330m ($255m) a year at clubs in Canterbury-Bankstown, the local municipality.
在靠近莱忽比（Revesby）工人俱乐部的高速公路边上，一个印有巨额头彩奖金图案的巨型广告牌拔地而起。该俱乐部位于悉尼以西的一个破败郊区。这个街区经过改造后焕然一新，咖啡馆、餐厅、理发店和健身房一应俱全。然而，一间间摆满老虎机的房间才是这里的主角。这里的消费者大多上了年纪，一边喝着啤酒，抽着烟，一边在老虎机前面等待出奖。可惜，大部分人都会失望而归。仅在坎特伯雷—班克斯敦区的俱乐部，赌客们每年就会输掉3.3亿澳元（2.55亿美元）。
This is no anomaly. Australia fritters away more money per person gambling than any other country. According to H2 Gambling Capital, a consultancy, the average adult lost $990 in 2016; 49% more than Singaporeans, the next-biggest losers. According to an old saying, they would bet on two flies walking up a wall. The pokies are far and away the most popular form of flutter, accounting for over half of annual losses (spending on gambling minus the payouts from it) of $18bn (see chart).
这并不奇怪，澳大利亚人均在博彩业输掉的钱全球第一多。据咨询机构H2 Gambling Capital的数据显示，在2016年，平均每个澳洲成年人输了990美元，比排名第二的新加坡多出49％。澳大利亚有句谚语，“他们甚至会为了墙上两只往上爬的苍蝇打赌”。老虎机仍是现在最流行的博彩形式，占年度赌输额（博彩业收入减去支出）180亿美元的一半以上。
That is partly because of the proliferation of pokies: after decades of liberalisation, the country is peppered with some 197,000 machines—one for every 114 people. Most states allow them in pubs as well as clubs like the Revesby; only Western Australia restricts them to casinos. Punters can bet big and often, incurring losses of up to A$1,200 an hour. Critics say the pokies are designed to get players hooked. Their many potential combinations, “near misses” and promises of big payouts cause the body to release dopamine, a feel-good neurotransmitter, explains Charles Livingstone, of Monash University in Melbourne—“similar to the pattern occasioned by a cocaine addiction”.
老虎机如此流行，一是它数量庞大、遍布澳洲。在博彩业解禁的数十年之后，澳大利亚有大约19.7万台——平均每114个人就有一台。在大多数州，酒吧和莱忽比这样的俱乐部都能经营老虎机。只有西澳大利亚州限制老虎机设置在赌场内。赌客可以在短时间内多次下大注，每小时可以输掉高达1200澳元。评论人士称，老虎机的目的是让玩家上瘾。墨尔本莫纳什大学的利文斯通（Charles Livingstone）解释道，老虎机的许多设置，如可能的组合，“就差一点儿”以及大奖的承诺，都会让人释放多巴胺，一种使人感觉良好的神经递质，”这和可卡因成瘾的原理相似“。
Most Aussies dabble sensibly enough, but almost half of the money sunk into the pokies is spent by problem gamblers, often from poor areas. It is not difficult to make the case for change. In 2010 a government advisory body estimated that the social costs of gambling are at least A$4.7bn a year. Among other measures, it recommended reducing the amount a player can spend per spin to A$1 (the current maximum is A$10), and introducing mechanisms to allow gamblers to set limits on their losses.
大多数澳洲人对博彩活动比较理性，浅尝辄止，嗜赌成瘾的通常是一些来自贫困地区的赌徒们，老虎机上有一半的钱都是他们输的。其实，要改变并不难。2010年，一政府咨询机构估计，赌博的社会成本每年至少为47亿澳元。该机构提出许多建议，其中一条建议将玩家每轮的赌注减少至1澳元（目前最高可达10澳元），并引入设置赌客损失上限的机制。
Politicians have little appetite to see such measures through, however. State and territorial governments are responsible for regulating most forms of gambling. They rake in A$5.7bn a year in taxes from the industry—income that has been especially welcome as royalties from mining have fallen. The federal government could, in theory, intervene. But the gambling lobby derailed the most recent such attempt, in 2012, when it caricatured a proposal to oblige gamblers to set limits on their losses as requiring Australians to obtain a “licence to punt”.
然而，政客们却对这些建议并不感冒。澳洲联邦和州政府负责监管大部分博彩形式。政府每年从博彩业获得的税收高达57亿澳元。自采矿业税收下滑后，这一税收就显得尤其重要。理论上，联邦政府可以进行干预。不过，最近大多数此类提案都遭博彩业游说团体破坏。2012年，一项规定赌客为损失设置上限的提案曾被这些游说团体讥讽为“澳洲人民赌博还要许可”。
The gambling industry says that it generates thousands of jobs and makes huge “social contributions”, including sponsoring sports teams and providing subsidised food in clubs such as the Revesby. “They do a hell of a lot of good work in places where the government is slow to act,” says one former MP. Yet the industry does not leave regulation to chance: it donates lavishly to both big political parties and to independent politicians. “This corrupts governance,” argues Andrew Wilkie, an independent MP who instigated the attempt at federal regulation in 2012. “No different from a bribe.”
博彩业称，该行业创造了数以千计的工作岗位，为社会做出“重大贡献”，包括为体育队伍提供赞助，向类似莱忽比这类的俱乐部提供食品补贴。一位澳大利亚前议员说道：“博彩业能在很多方面弥补政府的不足。”。不过，博彩业确实干预了政府相关政策的制定：它大力资助有实力的政党和独立政客。“这影响了政府决策，与贿赂没有区别。”独立议员威尔基（Andrew Wilkie）说道。他就是上文2012年联邦政府提案的发起者。
编译：Monkeyblue
审校：Meng-Ci
编辑：翻吧君
英文来源：经济学人