The more things change, the more they stay the same. One might think that the shady dealings linking politics with the underworld of gambling and organised crime described in Frank Hardy’s classic novel Power Without Glory are a thing of the past. The truth, however, is that the whole dodgy racket has just grown.

John Wren had nothing on the wealth, power and influence of someone like James Packer, owner of Melbourne’s mammoth Crown Casino complex. These days, if you’re looking to fleece the punters and use your ill-gotten gains to corrupt the political process, you don’t even have to cover it up.

In fact, if the deal struck recently by the Victorian government to extend Crown Casino’s lease for 17 years, from 2033 to 2050, is anything to go by, you can expect to supplement your winnings with hundreds of millions of dollars from the public purse.

The facts of the agreement, which will pass with the support of Labor, are as follows. Crown Casino will, until 2033 at the earliest, continue to pay its government-subsidised rent of $1 a year for the gigantic piece of prime real estate it occupies on the southern bank of the Yarra (one wonders what Victoria’s public housing tenants might think of that). And it has been granted the right to extend its gaming facilities to the tune of 128 new poker machines, 40 gaming tables and 50 new automated game terminals.

Most disturbingly, it has also been guaranteed compensation of up to $200 million per four-year government term in the case that any legislative change impacts on its profits. This might include, for example, new rules aimed at addressing problem gambling such as reducing betting limits or restricting access to ATMs.

In exchange for all this, the state is set to receive up to $910 million in taxes and licence payments. Sounds like a lot, but when averaged over the term of the agreement, it’s only around $25 million a year. Compared to Crown’s annual profit, which has averaged over $400 million a year for the past three years, it’s peanuts.

Of course, the sweet deal that Crown has secured has nothing to do with the tens of thousands of dollars it has donated to both Liberal and Labor parties over the past four years. In reality, according to both parties, it’s all about jobs – the various “perks” were necessary to provide security for the approximately 8,800 people who work there.

But why stop the argument there? Why not include the many other people whose livelihoods are more or less directly dependent on the gaming industry? Taking Australia as a whole, the social cost of problem gambling is estimated at $4.7 billion a year. Not all of this money goes to the Casinos themselves. Much of it, in fact, flows down to social workers and others dealing with the broader impacts of the industry.

What about the police and medical workers who handle the approximately 400 suicides a year that are associated with gambling addictions? Are we to throw them on the scrap heap too?

And why not apply the same logic to drive a jobs boom in other areas? The government could, for example, launch a new program in which, say, a thousand people a year are randomly selected to have one of their limbs amputated. What a boon for health care and disability service providers! Victoria could become a world leader in providing a good quality of life for amputees. And think how well that would position us if there’s ever another boom in the war industry!

Gambling is something that many people enjoy, and it should certainly not be subject to a government ban. However, the super-profits enjoyed by giant gaming corporations like Crown depend, to a significant degree, on the kind of problem gambling that places a big burden on society. If this wasn’t the case, there would be no need for guarantees of hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation if the government does anything to address the issue.

James Packer is a multi-billionaire who can more than afford to pay his own way. That Victorian workers, who are already the source of a large chunk of Crown’s profits, should be slugged with the bill for hundreds of millions of dollars in government subsidies for the casino is yet another indictment of the racket of “business as usual” in which the contemporary John Wrens work hand in glove with political leaders to enrich themselves at society’s expense.