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A review by scribepub
One Last Spin: the power and peril of the pokies by Drew Rooke
Timely and meticulously researched, One Last Spin is a candid, important investigation into the predatory rise of pokies in Australia by a fresh new voice in Australian journalism.
Anna Krien
A masterfully researched and skilfully written account of a virus that has flourished unchecked for decades. At once a page-turner, sociological study, and damning indictment, Drew Rooke has provided us with further proof — if ever it were needed — of the calamity that is the poker machine industry.
David Leser, Journalist and Author of To Begin to Know: Walking in the Shadows of My Father
Early in Drew Rooke’s One Last Spin, a gambling counsellor tells him, “Australia has pokies the way America has guns.” This book is an affirmation of that claim: the social harm poker machines create; the political leverage of the gambling lobby; the fallacy that pokies are somehow a force for communal good and intrinsic to some archetypal idea of Australianness. Through interviews with addicts, academics, opponents, clubs management, and industry peddlers, Rooke shows how pervasive and poisonous the situation has become — and how, learning from past defeats, the campaign to halt the march of the “VIP Lounge” is gaining momentum. This is a brave and compassionate work of advocacy journalism by a fresh new voice in Australian nonfiction.
Sam Vincent, Journalist and Author of Blood and Guts: Dispatches from the Whale Wars
This could have been a mightily depressing book. And yet it’s not – largely because Drew Rooke makes for an amiable guide, inspiring sympathy for the people he meets.
The Saturday Age
One Last Spin is a meticulously researched, compelling, shocking work on journalism. Rooke moves effectively from the history of pokies in Australia to profiles of people affected by gambling addiction, and includes interviews with industry figureheads, researchers and club employees. It’s an important book concerning a problem that will hopefully continue gathering momentum as an urgent political issue.
Good Reading
Compelling reading.
Hawkes Bay Weekend
One Last Spin gives readers an eye-opening and somewhat harrowing glance inside the world of the pokies, both from the perspective of those who play it, and those who run it, providing a comprehensive investigation into gambling-related issues in urban, suburban and regional Australia.
Kill Your Darlings
I was immediately intrigued by the sad compelling nature of his book, a mixture of personal anecdote, stories of people in the grip of gambling addiction, academic research and interviews with those researching and working in the gambling industry.
Julia Tsalis, Writing NSW
An eye-opening read about the insidious nature of pokies in Australia and their grip on our society.
Julia Tsalias, Writing NSW
Anna Krien
A masterfully researched and skilfully written account of a virus that has flourished unchecked for decades. At once a page-turner, sociological study, and damning indictment, Drew Rooke has provided us with further proof — if ever it were needed — of the calamity that is the poker machine industry.
David Leser, Journalist and Author of To Begin to Know: Walking in the Shadows of My Father
Early in Drew Rooke’s One Last Spin, a gambling counsellor tells him, “Australia has pokies the way America has guns.” This book is an affirmation of that claim: the social harm poker machines create; the political leverage of the gambling lobby; the fallacy that pokies are somehow a force for communal good and intrinsic to some archetypal idea of Australianness. Through interviews with addicts, academics, opponents, clubs management, and industry peddlers, Rooke shows how pervasive and poisonous the situation has become — and how, learning from past defeats, the campaign to halt the march of the “VIP Lounge” is gaining momentum. This is a brave and compassionate work of advocacy journalism by a fresh new voice in Australian nonfiction.
Sam Vincent, Journalist and Author of Blood and Guts: Dispatches from the Whale Wars
This could have been a mightily depressing book. And yet it’s not – largely because Drew Rooke makes for an amiable guide, inspiring sympathy for the people he meets.
The Saturday Age
One Last Spin is a meticulously researched, compelling, shocking work on journalism. Rooke moves effectively from the history of pokies in Australia to profiles of people affected by gambling addiction, and includes interviews with industry figureheads, researchers and club employees. It’s an important book concerning a problem that will hopefully continue gathering momentum as an urgent political issue.
Good Reading
Compelling reading.
Hawkes Bay Weekend
One Last Spin gives readers an eye-opening and somewhat harrowing glance inside the world of the pokies, both from the perspective of those who play it, and those who run it, providing a comprehensive investigation into gambling-related issues in urban, suburban and regional Australia.
Kill Your Darlings
I was immediately intrigued by the sad compelling nature of his book, a mixture of personal anecdote, stories of people in the grip of gambling addiction, academic research and interviews with those researching and working in the gambling industry.
Julia Tsalis, Writing NSW
An eye-opening read about the insidious nature of pokies in Australia and their grip on our society.
Julia Tsalias, Writing NSW