How one family used pokies and politics to extract a fortune from Tasmanians

James Boyce’s new book Losing Streak charts the story of how Federal Hotels gained an exclusive licence to operate all of Tasmania’s 3,500 poker machines for free. The company’s owners, the Farrell family, amassed a fortune of A$463 million in the process.

The book provides a detailed account of the cosy and conflicted relationships between a gambling corporation and decision-makers that has gifted a public licence worth around $30 million per year to Federal for 30 years. Boyce tells a detailed story of how policy decisions about pokies are actually made.

In Tasmania’s case, a changing cast of actors has colluded to grant extreme riches to a single family, extracted in large part from the state’s most disadvantaged citizens. The book’s publication is beautifully timed, poised to enliven the debate surrounding the current parliamentary inquiry that threatens to end Federal’s monopoly after 2023.

The author is by no means a neutral observer of these events. Boyce has been an advocate for pokie reform in Tasmania for close to two decades. However, he is also an acclaimed historian – and his meticulous referencing to sources in the Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office and the Tasmanian Parliamentary Library ensures his claims are open to verification.

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