Robert Peard
The general acceptance afforded the national image of Australians as gamblers have given gambling a legitimacy rare in other countries. Concerns with the social effects of this have led many State governments to implement programs to counteract negative social effects. The Queensland Treasury has allocated funds for the development of teaching resources for this purpose including the development of the Unit presented here. In 2006 the author constructed a Unit of work for Queensland Senior Secondary (Years 11 and 12) Mathematics classes entitled ‘The Mathematics of Responsible Gambling’ as a consultancy to the Queensland State Government. Towards the end of 2007 the ‘Secondary Mathematics Teaching Resources Kit’ was distributed to all secondary government schools. This paper describes the activities of the Unit, their relationship to the Queensland Syllabus objectives, the research upon which the Unit is based, and the current research into the effectiveness of its implementation which began in November 2008 and will continue in Semester 1 of 2009.