Priest lashes out at church over problem gambling push

Priest lashes out at church over problem gambling push
Reid Sexton.


A MELBOURNE Anglican priest has broken ranks to attack his church's support of mandatory pre-commitment for pokies, saying it did not understand problem gambling because it did little to help addicts.

Father James Grant's comments follow a public declaration of support for the reform this week from Bishop Philip Huggins, chair of the Melbourne Anglican Social Responsibilities Committee.

Independent MP Andrew Wilkie has demanded the minority Gillard government force players to set loss limits in return for his support, with the move sparking a bitter exchange between pokies venues and campaigners.


But Father Grant, who is a chaplain at Crown Casino and works closely with problem gamblers, said mandatory pre-commitment would be useless under the proposed system because players could set whatever limit they wanted.

Father Grant said while the church had chaplains who dealt with hospital patients or prison inmates, no such specialists existed within the church to help problem gamblers.

He said this meant the church had failed to understand the issues faced by problem gamblers and led it to endorse a simplistic solution that interfered with people's freedoms.

''[The church] does not have a relationship with the gambling industry at all … so they're prone to come out with this kind of crap they came out with this week,'' he said.

''If they think this is such an issue to have press releases all the time, why haven't they acted on this and gotten specialist gambling counsellors?

''There are people with problem gambling but we know counselling works … that's more important than coming along and saying 'we're going to ban you from these places or from spending this much'.''

Bishop Huggins said in a press release this week that the only losers from pokies reform would be ''those who profit from others' gambling addiction''.

But Father Grant, whose Preston church is part of the region overseen by the bishop, said comments such as this demonised people working in the industry.

''These are normal people who pay their taxes, support their kids and love their families,'' he said.

Bishop Huggins said there was never an intention to demonise people and the venues they worked at would remain profitable if gambling addicts lost less money.

He said Anglican agencies such as the Brotherhood of St Laurence employed hundreds of general addiction specialists to help people.

While counselling was crucial, he said, mandatory pre-commitment allowed addicts to set a limit before the addiction took hold.

''I'm happy to take Father James around and he can share his experiences and meet with others to provide therapeutic assistance to problem gamblers.''



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