It's as addictive as cocaine and costs $1 a hit.

Tonight, the ABC documentary Ka Ching! Pokie Nation goes behind the flashing lights and spinning wheels and talks to neuro-scientists, industry insiders and gamblers to dissect Australia’s addiction to the pokie machine.

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Mathematicians talk of formulas you can never beat, composers discuss music designed to make you feel relaxed and about to win, and world experts reveal how pokies are designed for addiction.

Then there are the pokie addicts. The ones who started off not understanding why anyone would do "the pokies" in the first place. And then they give those spinning, gurgling, flashing machines a go.

"It was the worst two dollars I ever spent," Sharon says.

This is Sharon's story of pokie addiction

Sharon is 56. She was addicted to the pokies for around 20 years. She lives in country South Australia. She lost her husband, her two sons, her home, and was arrested for armed robbery.

Why did you start?

I had an accident at work. I was a really active person. There were my boys, the garden, doing up the house, I had two jobs and then I hurt my knee and had to have an operation and I was out of action. It was depressing and I felt useless and a few things happened at the same time including my nephew dying of an overdose.

A friend knew I was going through a hard time and said "Come on, let's go to town and take your mind of things". She took me to the pokies and I was so bored. I couldn’t believe people did this and I didn’t do it.  And then I got change from getting a drink. Two $1 coins. I thought why not, I'm here. I put them in a machine and I won $400.

A staff member said “well done” to me and no-one had said that to me in such a long time. I felt so good. $400 was a lot of money for me. It just crept up after that. I started going in between medical appointments. It was the worst $2 I ever spent. It was always, "I’ll go and I’ll just spend $20". It’s a lie you tell yourself.

What's it like?

I got in the pokies trance. Hop in car. Need to get to the pokies. Get anxious and start shaking and run orange lights to get there. You’re in a trance driving. I was like that whole time.

There wasn’t a time like I felt that I was all there. I had the feeling that people could walk straight through me. I would be buying a drink and other people would get served before me and I would think they were walking straight through me and I wasn’t there. And the trance continued after you finished playing pokies. It’s always in your head, not just when you’re in that venue. You wake-up with the pokie tune in your head. You dream with the tune and the games in your head. You have no interest in anything else.

What did you lose?

People always ask "How much money did you lose?" It's a silly question because no gambler knows how much money they lose and I lost more than money. What I know I’ve lost is time, 20 years of my life. I've lost my family. I've lost my self respect. That’s the worst thing. That’s when you feel worthless and no good to anybody. That’s when you get suicidal.

How did you end up committing an armed robbery?

The day I was arrested was pay day and I went to the pokies thinking I would just spend $20 and I spent the lot. We were having a tough time at home. There was no money for food and we needed food. I missed my counselling appointment to go to the pokies, I had no money. Everything exploded.

When I was driving home I thought I'll just drive off the freeway and kill myself. It’s like what alcoholics talk about. A black out. I don’t remember what I did but the police arrested me quickly and they said the lady at the shop said I had held her up with a knife. I couldn’t remember but I said to the police whatever she said, I did. I was very fortunate not to go to jail. I’d never committed a crime in my life and there are people in the same boat as me, who've never committed a crime, but they’re in jail.

It was a little country store. I still feel sorry for the lady I robbed. I feel for her, she has to live with that for the rest of her life.

How did you stop?

When I started speaking out publicly about four years ago that’s when I stopped. I can’t be speaking about pokies then be seen in a venue. I’m not someone who counts the days since I last gambled, but the last day I gambled I was stressed (I had financial worries, I had moved away from my support network) and I thought “just $20”. Then I went inside and sat down and thought 'what are you doing?' I left and went straight to a financial counsellor and she helped.

I quit, I think, because I started helping people.

What are you doing now?

Someone said to me that when you are trying to stop gambling, find your passion. Do something you enjoyed as a kid. Those pokie machines are taking you back to your childhood with the lights and sounds. Like Christmas morning or beautiful jewellery boxes that you open and you feel good. I'm finishing off a four-year writing course. I'm about to go around Australia in a caravan and look into the awareness about pokies and see what support services are available for people in the country. I wrote a play, It’s Only a Dollar, and we’ve been asked to perform it at our local group.

Pokie facts

Each year Australian State governments collect around $4 billion from pokie taxes.

Almost 500,000 Australians are hooked.

Of the $12 billion spent each year on pokies, 40% of that revenue is from problem gamblers and another 20 per cent is from individuals on their way to developing a gambling problem.

Victoria’s Alfred Hospital reports that one in five suicides or suicide attempts that are treated in their hospital are the result of machine addiction.

Socio-economically disadvantaged areas average five times more machines than affluent postcodes.

Ka Ching! Pokie Nation, ABC, 9.30pm, tonight.