Having spent much of the show demanding a crackdown on gambling advertising, Jeremy Cordeaux flipped the question over on this week’s Court of Public Opinion. If gambling means staking something on an uncertain outcome, he asked, how much of everyday life is really just gambling wearing a better suit?
The Respectable Wager
He began with the sharemarket. We don’t think of shares as gambling, Jeremy noted — we call it speculation, or more flatteringly, investing. It sounds respectable. But peel away the vocabulary and you’re still staking money on an uncertain future, hoping it climbs rather than falls.
He offered the week’s markets as evidence of the likeness: $135 billion added, records broken, shareholders abruptly richer. For how long, he asked, nobody knows — and sometimes the jump owes more to a rumour or a whisper than to earnings. That, he suggested, is the language of the punt, not the balance sheet.
Taking Your Chances Underground
On Friday’s live stream, Professor Ian Plimer — who, Jeremy joked, knows everything about mining — carried the theme below the surface. You sink your shaft, Jeremy summarised, and you take your chances. No certainties. You might hit paydirt; in this lucky country, plenty do. But you might not.
For all its geology and engineering, mining is at heart a bet on what lies beneath — vast sums wagered on an outcome no one can promise.
The Biggest Bookmaker Of All
Then came Jeremy’s favourite turn. The biggest gambler on earth, he argued, is the insurance industry. They bet nothing will happen; you bet it will. Every premium is a wager on the future — the house betting on calm, the customer quietly betting on disaster.
It’s a tidy inversion: the very institution we lean on for security is running the largest book of all.
Hits, Misses And The Kerb
The panel found gambles everywhere. Television and radio are huge gambles. Film is worse — only about one movie in ten ever turns a profit. Music is the same: back a record for the top ten and you’ll likely lose. Even crossing the road, Jeremy quipped, is a bit of a gamble — especially, he added, with an electric car bearing down on you.
The cumulative point was disarming. Life is a gamble. From the sharemarket to the mine to the insurance policy to the kerb at the corner, uncertainty runs through everything.
Where It Leaves The Argument
None of this, to be clear, dented Jeremy’s stance on gambling advertising — the harm he detailed elsewhere in the show was real and specific. But the segment offered a wry, wider view: that risk is inescapable, and much of what we call respectable is a bet in disguise.
It was Jeremy at his most reflective — turning a hard policy fight into a gentle meditation on chance, and leaving his listeners to work out where investing ends and gambling begins.
Listen To The Full Episode
Catch the complete Garage edition of The Court of Public Opinion, recorded live around the dining room table.
Watch The Full Episode
The Court of Public Opinion streams live every Friday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. (ACST), right here at jeremycordeaux.com. Download the podcast anytime on your favourite podcast app, and join the conversation with your calls and comments.
