Video poker machines, a former symbol of fraud and gambling in Brazil, are now being
converted into computer-based educational tools for Brazilian public primary schools and also
for governmental and non-governmental institutions dealing with communities of poverty and
social exclusion, in an attempt to reduce poverty risks (decrease money spent on gambling)
and promote social inclusion (increase access and motivation to education). Thousands of
illegal gambling machines are seized by federal authorities, in Brazil, every year, and usually
destroyed at the end of the criminal apprehension process.
This paper describes a project developed by the University of Southern Santa Catarina, Brazil,
responsible for the conversion process of gambling machines, and the social inclusion
opportunities derived from it. All project members worked on a volunteer basis, seeking to
promote social inclusion of Brazilian young boys and girls, namely through digital inclusion. So
far, the project has been able to convert over 200 gambling machines and install them in over
40 public primary schools, thus directly benefiting more than 12,000 schoolchildren.
The initial motivation behind this project was technology based, however the different options
arising from the conversion process of the gambling machines have also motivated a rather
innovative and unique experience in allowing schoolchildren and young people with special
(educational) needs to access to computer-based pedagogical applications. The availability of these converted machines also helps to place Information and
Communication Technologies (ICT) in the very daily educational environment of these children
and youngsters, thus serving social and cultural inclusion aspects, by establishing a dialogue
with the community and their technological expectations, and also directly contributing to their
digital literacy
