Poker machines: Sales are underway in Canberra, with the Raiders the big buyers so far. Credit:Arsineh Houspian Anti-pokies campaigners argue that most machines are designed to keep punters transfixed through the use of sounds, lights and graphics that are specifically designed to keep the attention of players. One design feature that infuriates reformers is losses disguised as wins, where punters who are betting on multiple lines may have a major loss, but a minor win on one of the lines they are betting on. So a $1 bet may yield just a 20 cent win yet the machine will play graphics and sounds to tell the player they have won, despite the 80 cent loss. Monash University public health professor Charles Livingstone said this type of reinforcement plugs into the brain's reward system.

"This tricks people into thinking they have had a win or are close. It stimulates reward," Dr Livingstone said. Maurice Blackburn principal of the social justice practice Jacob Varghese said the industry may be in breach of negligence laws or consumer law for misleading and deceptive conduct. "If machines are being designed in a way that is deliberately deceptive then that is illegal," he said. Mr Varghese, who is working with the new Alliance for Gambling Reform, said studies showed that punters were helpless to addiction because of the deliberate design of some pokies through graphics and sounds. "Litigation in the past has focused on the gambler, but what is coming more and more to light through neuroscience is that players are helpless because of the design of the machines.

"It's time to focus on the behaviour of the gaming machine manufacturers and designers." Australian poker machines are audited by independent testing laboratories and by state and territory regulators before approved for use, the industry body Gaming Technologies Association says. Association chief executive Ross Ferrar said that under Australian laws machines had to inform punters of any payout so the idea of losses disguised as wins was "silly terminology and nonsense." This type of scheme, which was featured in the late Neil Lawrence's documentary Ka-Ching! Pokie Nation that screened on ABC TV on Tuesday, Mr Varghese says, is an example of deceptive conduct. The documentary also spoke to former music composers for the machines, who said the music was also designed to reinforce pleasure and reward.

Every year Australians lose over $12 billion on the pokies – nearly $2.5 billion in Victoria alone, with the government reaping more than $1 billion a year in pokies taxes. The GTA say manufacture and design are heavily regulated and for irresponsible machines to be approved would be "nonsense". The legal action - a specific industry target is yet to be settled on - could provide unprecedented scrutiny and access to the way the industry operates. Another design feature the new alliance takes aim at is what Dr Livingstone says are "close misses". That is where the images on the screen look as if a winning combination is close, but because the games are now digital the reality is a loss is far off.