The Travels of the Techno-Freedom-Fighter

Today there is an article on the ACT ABC news website… “Canberra clubs struggling in current economic climate” it goes on to say that “The troubled economic climate is affecting Canberra’s clubs with some saying they are on the verge of closing down. Clubs ACT’s chief executive Bob Samarcq says “rising costs and tougher smoking laws have contributed to an annual revenue drop of about $16 million.” The Question is that what effect is the Clubs and their pokie machines having on the Canberra public.

Lifeline tells us that you have a much higher chance of being hit by lightening in Australia (1 in 1,603,250) than winning Powerball (1 in 54,979,15). Also there is absolutely no skill involved in poker machine gambling. Nothing you do to the machine will influence the result of your game. The outcome of any one game is randomly generated and is not influenced by previous plays. A poker machine that has not paid out in a while is no more likely to pay out than one that just hit the jackpot. Australian’s spent almost $15.5 billion in 2004 on gambling. We spent around $6.5 billion on Gas and Electricity in the same year. 80% of problem gamblers who seek help state it is because of a problem with poker machines alone.One in eight regular gamblers is a problem gambler and they contribute 30% of the total gambling revenue. Around 6000 Canberra residents are thought to have a significant gambling problem. For each problem gambler, approximately 7 others are also affected. The suffering of addicts’ families in all social classes stays hidden: those children are often the very poorest, whatever their apparent household income. The more gambling there is, the more addicts are created. Why would a Labor government committed to abolishing child poverty encourage yet more?

There has been a great expansion of gambling, mainly through “pokies” now means more than 10% of government revenues come from gambling. The Terratory has become addicted to the nation’s gambling habits. No future government could decide gambling was damaging its people and seek to reduce it. How could they afford to lose those revenues? Better by far to try to hold down gambling as best a government can – and it can. In the US both houses have now passed a bill effectively stopping online gambling by banning banks from paying credit-card debts to any online gaming sites. Why can’t we? Instead, we are allowing television to advertise gambling for the first time – but only “socially responsibly”. How unusual is that Labor has had nothing whatever to say about any of it. Not a word! It may not be easy to know what to do about squalid and unmerited ill-gotten gains, but the first step is to talk about it and join the widespread disgust at this growing social problem.

It is interesting to check out the ACT ALP donors list. There are only three major ones, but there is one that stands out. The point made is the poker machine dollars collected by the Labor Clubs put over $250 000 into the local ALP. Also It has been ALP policy to preserve exclusively Pokies by Clubs and not hotels in the ACT. It is easy to see why when there is over $250 000 money is at stake. It seems silly to me when they could be probably be getting the Same amont of money out of the Hotels as in NSW the hotels are second only to property developers as donors to the ALP in NSW. Another interesting fact is that ACT Labor has defended a regime where the ACT is one of the country’s lowest rates of tax on Club poker machine revenue in Australia. Also the ALP fudged the legislation to define ‘political donations’ to be included in the mandatory ‘community levy’. The question to be asked id how ACT Labor MLAs decide they have no conflict of interest in gambling legislation is beyond me.

Gambling is one of those things that really get me fired up. My I attended a Salvation Army church that has a rehabilitation centre attached to it. Therefore a lot of my friends have been through the rehabilitation service. On top of the addiction issues that a lot of them face gambling is a catalyst for their slide into troubles.

The argument that the money that goes into poker machines is required for government revenue to provide services to the people is just ludicrous. As well as that licensed clubs provide support to the community through community grants. I would really like to see someone to a longitudinal study into the benefits and cost the Society of gambling.

Obviously there are a number of complex issues around the industry and because people make their livelihoods within the Gambling industry. It is not a simple knee-jerk reaction of banning all of the poker machines in the country that will solve the issue. This is just a extreme news grabbing opinion, because in the end it may cause as much social harm is the current situation.

And it does not have to be all that difficult a number of small changes at the venues would be helped to ensure that less harm is caused. Such as require venues to display clocks on the wall and ensure natural light is visible from poker machine areas during daylight hours. And remove ATM’s and EFTPOS facilities from all buildings with a gambling license to avoid unplanned spending. As well as require venues to provide nongambling, socially interactive activities at poker machine venues.

In a government level it would be good to replace the current license system with one in which poker machines are owned by the state government with a fixed operator’s fee paid to venues for running the machines. This particular model has worked quite effectively within Canada. All poker machines to be located in licensed clubs (not hotels).

I have been copping a fair bit of flack about my “extreme Anti-gambling stance” as some papers would put it, because I want to “ban pokies” and “ruin” the lives of people that work within the industry. Don’t get me wrong I would really like to see a significant reduction in the amount of poker machines, the poker machines are only a small part of a very large industry is marginalised as a lot of my friends. With only the fear campaign is always started when you try to deal with a bad situation rationally.

The simple assumption that Australians like to bet and Gamble and therefore there is not much that the government should do, is not one that I share. The thing that really annoys me is the once any pastime becomes industrialised then the people who partake in the pasttime can often be exploited as is the case with gambling. There is nothing wrong with putting a few dollars on a horse, or popping your loose change through poker machine. It’s when organisations conspire to set up scenarios where they exploit people to maximise profits, when the government needs to take the initiative and minimise the harm that people can find themselves in

Gambling to me is an accountability issue, I really do believe that the public knew the true cost to the community of gambling and where the money really goes that people would be absolutely appalled by the situation, Establishment of the following independent bodies that report directly to the State Parliament:
-a Gambling Services Commissioner to conduct monitoring,
-a Gambling Ombudsman, and
-a Gambling Foundation to conduct independent research and promote responsible gambling.