Chips with Everything

Forget cuddling koalas or trekking in the outback. When your travels next take you Down Under, do something far more Australian — go gambling instead. The Australian love of punting often surprises first-time visitors who labor under the touching delusion that locals spend all their leisure time outdoors and not in smoke-filled gambling parlors.

But New South Wales is reputed to be home to 10% of the world's poker machines. Many of them seem to be located in Sydney's sprawling Star City casino complex, tel: (61-2) 9777 9000, smack on Darling Harbour and one of the city's inescapable...