Loss Limits!

When a 'Predatory Industry' that depends on CREATING ADDICTION protests that something is 'ineffective,' it's probably because it IS EFFECTIVE!

Voluntary limits won't stop gambling addiction: Viewpoint

Springfield Mayor Domenic J. Sarno, left and City Solicitor Edward M. Pikula celebrated the victory for casino gambling as a referendum issue on Nov. 4 at the Basketball Hall of Fame. (Mark M. Murray photo)

 

By Ron Chimelis | rchimelis@repub.commasslive.com

on November 21, 2014

 

You didn't really think the gambling debate in Massachusetts would end on Election Night, did you?
Nearly three weeks after the casino issue in Massachusetts was presumably settled, the fight is still being waged on other fronts. Like Confederate soldiers after Appomattox, some anti-casino citizens remain loyal to their cause, arguing for a cause that was lost at the ballot box.

Even among those who accept the reality of casino gambling in this state, discussions are being aired that should have been heard before the election. One is a proposal that would require casinos to reward gamblers for voluntarily setting limits on the time they spend, or how much they can lose, at slot machines.

Of all the games people wager to play, slot machines are the most ruthlessly addictive. It requires no skill and about one second of time. The insidious nature of the slots was one of the better arguments waged by the anti-casino forces in an otherwise uphill fight.

Not only should any debate over setting a "loss limit'' have occurred before the election – and not on Thursday, when the state Gaming Commission met with casino representatives – but it won't effectively address the problem of gambling addiction.

The Gaming Commission probably had to wait until after the election for formal discussion with the casino people. Until the vote came in, casino gambling in Massachusetts remained theoretical, and a state agency cannot legislate theory.

These questions, however, could have been raised informally at any time. Now that they are, the notion that putting a ceiling on a gambling session at the slots will help control addiction is too rosy to be trusted.

Robert DeSalvio, who is in charge of the casino project in Everett, told the commission that it would only encourage problem gamblers to come back for more. That would be the worst possible approach to the problem, he said.

Opponents will argue that casino executives will dispute any state-regulated control. They could be right, but that does not make DeSalvio's contention incorrect.

The Gaming Commission has a responsibility to keep a very close watch on this new gambling frontier. So do the cities involved, including Springfield, where Mayor Domenic Sarno's cheerleading for the casino does not absolve the city from making sure the industry is as responsible as possible.

The fact remains, however, that Massachusetts voters endorsed casino gambling by a 60-40 margin. The nature of the industry is no secret, even as its value remains hotly debated.

If casinos are welcomed into Massachusetts by public vote, only to have state regulators set on a course to "clean it up,'' the entire process was misguided.

Other regulations will surface that could very well address the problems casino gambling may bring. From this perspective, a loss limit on slot machines is well-meaning but just won't work.

Even casino advocates could not deny the problem of gambling addiction. It will never be solved; the debate will now focus on how much it can be regulated, and how much responsibility fall on the gaming industry to regulate choices made by individual citizens.

State regulators are charged with monitoring the industry, but not overhauling it. As the Gaming Commission settles into its role as a public watchdog, it should keep that in mind.



http://www.masslive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2014/11/voluntary_limits_wont_stop_gam.html

 

 

 

 

 

casino operators will do anything to get you addicted

From Bill Kearney: 

Massachusetts ‘GAMING’ Future

More proof of how casino operators will do anything to get you addicted.

The Associated Press - Oct 09, 2012 - Atlantic City OKs portable gaming devices

New Jersey has cleared the way for casino patrons to gamble on their iPads, smartphones and mobile devices issued by the casino.

Patrons would be limited to a $2,500 daily limit.

Read more: http://www.myfoxny.com/story/19776010/nj-clears-way-for-portable-gambling-devices-in-ac#ixzz28qpaEC61

Atlantic City OKs portable gaming devices

Posted: Oct 09, 2012

MYFOXNY.COM - New Jersey has cleared the way for casino patrons to gamble on their iPads, smartphones and mobile devices issued by the casino.

The state Gaming Enforcement Division has issued regulations governing gambling on handheld devices that took effect on Monday.

"We are looking forward to having Atlantic City casinos take advantage of mobile gaming and we see these regulations as one more step in the expansion of gaming opportunities afforded to Atlantic City customers," Division of Gaming Enforcement Director David Rebuck stated.

The rules would allow electronic versions of dice, card and electronic slot games. [MEANING THERE ARE NO EMPLOYEES!]

Mobile gaming would only be allowed in any area located on the casino property, including swimming pools and excluding parking garages and parking areas.

Patrons would be limited to a $2,500 daily limit.

Technology exists that can render them inoperable beyond certain geographic bounds. The only parts of casino property where they'd be off-limits are parking lots and garages.

The move to allow handheld gambling devices is one of several expansions of gambling that New Jersey plans for Atlantic City, which is locked in fierce competition with casinos in neighboring states.

Amid uncertainty about whether Internet gambling will ultimately be approved or banned, the Atlantic City casinos seem to be taking a wait-and-see approach before actually offering hand-held gambling.

Lisa Spengler, a spokeswoman for the division, said no casino has yet applied to begin using such devices.

That may be because it would entail significant costs for casinos that might prove to be a waste if Internet gambling is approved, either within New Jersey or nationwide

The temporary regulations will remain in effect for 270 days with a proposal for final regulations within 60 days.

Are slots the "crack cocaine" of gambling?

Slot machines: boon in Ohio, bane in Hungary

Are slots the "crack cocaine" of gambling?

 

By Nicholas Nehamas

 

As revenue-hungry American states rev up their gambling industry, they might want to take a look at Hungary.

After the fall of communism in the early 1990′s, Hungary liberalized its gaming industry. Slot machines popped up in pubs, cafes and gaming parlors.

But this week the office of Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced his government would ban slots across the country, with the exception of those in Hungary’s three casinos.

Why? Because, according to State Secretary Janos Lazar, slot machines are dangerous and have ruined tens of thousands of Hungarian lives.

It’s not clear the government’s motives are totally sincere. Orban, a former democratic activist, has displayed worryingly authoritarian tendencies since taking power in 2010. A Hungarian political analyst told the Associated Press that the government might be trying to centralize all gambling activity under its control. Lazar also claimed slots are a threat to his country’s “national security,” but did not explain how.

Even so, Hungary’s decision is worth paying attention to in America.

In the midst of budget crises, many states have legalized or expanded slots over the last few years, including New York, Illinois, Florida, and Pennsylvania. In November, Marylanders will vote on whether or not to expand slots and other forms of gambling. And Ohio will soon introduce slots in its four casinos, despite a study by the state’s Lottery Commission concluding the machines could put nearly four percent of Ohioans at risk of gambling addiction.

When slots were legalized last year in Massachusetts, Latitude News’ home state, we wanted to learn more about the machines, which are truly a global phenomenon. One of our readers sent us this tweet in response to our piece on a proposed casino in Foxboro, MA:


Well, Martha, for slots there’s no better place to turn than Australia.

Well, Martha, for slots there’s no better place to turn than Australia.

Pokies Down Under

Aussies love a wager. Last year they spent around $23 billion on gambling, the highest per capita in the world. At least half of that was bet on slots, or “pokies,” as Australians call them— it’s short for poker machines. The country currently has more than 200,000 machines in at least 1,500 different venues. That’s a fifth of the world’s total.

“They’re ubiquitous,” Christopher McAuliffe, Visiting Professor of Australian Studies at Harvard University, told Latitude News. “They’re in local bars, clubs, hotels. If I walked out my front door [in Melbourne], a hundred yards down the street there would be a pub and a room with maybe 30 electronic gambling machines.”

But these contraptions aren’t the one-armed bandits of yore, where you pull a creaky handle and hope for three-of-a-kind. Modern slots are like flashy, hi-tech video games that play music and scenes from TV shows. Some let you place a bet every three-and-a-half seconds.

A patron smiles as she plays with “The Phantom” slot machine at a club in Sydney. Slot machines aren’t all fun-and-games though. Experts say they can be highly addictive. “You can play for 24 hours a day if you want,” says Dr. Alex Blaszczysnki, an Australian professor of psychology. “The only thing stopping you is fatigue and lack of money.” (Reuters)

The “Crack Cocaine” of Gambling?

People who gamble on slots do it even though they’re almost guaranteed to lose. Playing the “pokies” isn’t like sitting down to a game of blackjack or seven-card stud, where you know the odds and have a reasonable idea of what the house is holding.

A slot machine is more like a coin flip. Nothing you can do will change your chance of winning. In Australia, pokies are guaranteed by law to pay out 87 percent of what you put in. Yes, that means if you put in a hundred dollars, you’re promised eighty-seven back.

The house keeps the difference.

“In all but the most extraordinary cases, winning [over the long term] is impossible. But the random nature of these machines makes people think they’re just one twirl away from a jackpot,” said Dr. Alex Blaszczysnki, head of the School of Psychology at the University of Sydney and an expert on gambling behavior, in an interview with Latitude News.

Scientific research suggests gambling triggers dopamine centers in the brain, just like habit-forming drugs, and slots are the most addictive of all. Enthusiasts who stop playing can experience symptoms of physical withdrawal.

As a result, some experts have compared slots to “crack cocaine.”

Trouble in Plainville

Concerns about addiction and crime have popped up in Plainville, Massachusetts, where a horse-racing track has announced it wants to bring in slots. The Plainville track is competing for the slots with a former dog track in Raynham.

Slot machines are “a breeding ground for problem gambling,” said Mary-Ann Greanier, co-founder of No Plainville Racino, a local anti-slots group, in an interview with Latitude News. “We’re not talking about morality here. It’s about children not getting fed because their parents are addicted to gambling. It’s about people beating their spouses, or not having enough money to buy food. It’s a thread. Once you start tugging on it, our whole town unravels.”

Australian Prof. McAuliffe’s grandfather was a bookie. His brother raced greyhounds. He says he has no moral objection to gambling.

But for him, the parallels between Plainville and his homeland are clear: “As an Australian, the first thing you think of on seeing this story in Massachusetts is that government will come to depend on these machines [for revenue] while ordinary people, the people who can least afford it, will lose their money.”

In America and Australia, the relative number of problem gamblers is similar, ranging from between one to five percent of the total population, depending on the criteria of the study. These problem gamblers are much more likely than non-problem gamblers to divorce, suffer from depression, abuse alcohol, engage in criminal activity and commit suicide.

Problem Gamblers: A Cash Cow for Casinos

Even though their numbers aren’t huge, problem gamblers still lose an incredible amount of money — and casinos would hardly be as profitable without them. A 2004 study in Ontario found that people with a moderate to severe gambling problem provided 36 percent of casino revenue there.

A similar study in Australia found that around 40 percent of the gambling industry’s profits come from people who are addicted to pokies. On average, problem gamblers in Australia each lose $21,500 a year. They’re also a lucrative source of revenue for Australia’s states, which cannot impose an income tax.

Protesters hold banners and shout slogans as they march on the New South Wales state parliament in Sydney in 2003. Around 10,000 people protested the state government’s planned tax on poker machines, claiming that the tax would signal the end of community services provided by registered clubs and threaten many national Rugby League teams. (Reuters)

Australia recognizes it has a problem with pokies.

The Austrialian government recently introduced what it called “pre-commitment reform,” a law limiting the amount gamblers could spend on each session with a pokie. But the gambling industry launched a $3.5 million media campaign against vulnerable government MPs, calling the law “un-Australian.” The law is now stalled.

Even someone as familiar with problem gambling as Blaszczysnki admits that pokie reform is a difficult issue. “It’s a question of civil liberties,” he says. “If you impose mandatory pre-commitment on gambling, say 200 dollars a month, why not extend the commitment to alcohol and limit people to four drinks a day? You’d have a significant social benefit . . . [then] what about fast food? You’d see a general creep into a highly regimented 1984 or Brave New World scenario.”

http://www.latitudenews.com/story/slot-machines-boon-in-ohio-bane-in-hungary/

Slot Machine Trial Could Be Sunk

Pokies trial could be sunk: ClubsACT

Lisa Martin

From: AAP

August 28, 2012

 

A PARLIAMENTARY deadlock could spell game over for a proposed trial of poker machine reforms in the ACT, ClubsACT warns. 

  

The Gillard government's trial of mandatory pre-commitment technology at Canberra gaming venues was due to start in February.

Negotiations with ClubsACT have stalled while the federal government seeks support in parliament to introduce its gambling reform legislation.

The Australian Greens and independent Nick Xenophon, who want stronger action on problem gambling, are likely to vote down the bill with the Coalition in the Senate.

ClubsACT CEO Jeff House said the parliamentary stalemate could push the trial back to the second half of 2013 and that could coincide with a federal election.

Mr House said that as every day passes, the trial was looking more and more unlikely.

"I'm waiting for parliament to pull its collective finger out of its collective arse (to make a decision either way)," he told AAP.

Clubs are also preparing for the possibility that mandatory pre-commitment could be taken off the table, if there's a change of government that would let the coalition dump the trial plans, he said.

"I'll be the first to jump up and down with glee for not having to do the trial," he said.

Gaming manufacturers warn the machines won't be ready for the trial until 2014.

Mr House said independent MP Andrew Wilkie, an anti-gambling campaigner, had contributed to delays by insisting the trial be written into the gambling reform bill.

"We were on track, then Andrew Wilkie made the trial a legislative thing ... until the parliament decides what to do, there's no point us continuing with negotiations," he said.

"The government and I could agree on something and then the parliament could move the goal posts."

He said the Department Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) was still doing some work behind the scenes but "pretty much everything was yet to be sorted out".

Comment has been sought from Minister Jenny Macklin and Mr Wilkie.

Australian Greens senator Richard Di Natale said there was nothing stopping ClubsACT and the federal government pushing ahead with the trial, independently of the gambling bill passing parliament.

The clubs industry might claim the window for a trial was closing but the industry could not be trusted because it had campaigned against mandatory precommitment from the outset, he said.

"The timing of the election is a bit of a red herring," he told AAP.

The Greens are pushing for poker machine bets to be limited to $1.


http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/breaking-news/pokies-trial-could-be-sunk-clubsact/story-e6frea7l-1226459874517

Promoting Gambling with No Controls

 

Churches criticise recommendations of Select Committee report on gambling

By agency reporter

28 Jul 2012

 

Giving the go-ahead for more gaming machines on the high street threatens to trigger a surge in problem gambling, Church groups say as Parliament reveals its report into gambling.

The report recommends scrapping the upper limit of four high-risk B2 machines that betting shops are allowed to have on their premises. The report also expects local authorities to apply limits to the maximum number of machines in betting shops, but does not give power to local authorities to stop the spread of betting shops on the high street.

"This is a one way bet towards more addictive gambling machines in our communities," said Gareth Wallace from the Salvation Army. "Betting shops are making more and more profit from virtual games away from real horses.

"We're perplexed that the committee would recommend a further liberalisation of gambling machines when they heard evidence that problem gambling is on the rise."

The report, published by the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee and entitled The Gambling Act 2005: A bet worth taking?, looks into the gambling industry in the light of the 2005 Gambling Act. One of the stated aims of the Gambling Act is the "protection of children and other vulnerable persons from being harmed or exploited by gambling."

Church groups gave evidence to the committee last year and called for more to be done to protect those with gambling problems by effective regulation of the industry.

Daniel Webster of the Evangelical Alliance said: "The committee completely ignored the risks posed by B2 gaming machines. You can lose thousands of pounds an hour on these machines, but if the committee gets its way casinos will be granted more B2 machines, betting shops will be subject to no compulsory limit, and, for the first time, gaming arcades will be allowed to operate them.

"They didn't listen to the 22 per cent of callers to the gambling helpline citing these machines as problems, but backed an industry wanting to make a profit out of the pockets of the poorest."
James North of the Methodist Church said: "We believe the Select Committee has missed an important opportunity to halt the normalisation of hard gambling on our high streets. Category B2 gaming machines are strongly implicated in problem gambling. The Committee should have focused on reducing the availability of these dangerous machines."

Helena Chambers of Quaker Action on Alcohol and Drugs said: "The Select Committee has not given the increase in problem gambling the priority it deserves. Around 100,000 more individuals and their families have suffered from problem gambling since the Gambling Act of 2005. The committee recommends more local powers, but does not give local authorities the central power they need - to limit gambling outlets if they feel they already have too many."

The churches welcomed calls by the committee for further comparable research on problem gambling rates and the introduction of a national system of self-exclusion regulated by the Gambling Commission. However, their recommendations did not mention this proposal in relation to remote gambling.

Dr. Daniel Boucher, Director of Parliamentary Affairs for Christian Action Research and Education (CARE), said: "It is very welcome that the Committee recommended a national system for self exclusion which would be of great benefit for people dealing with an addiction, however it is odd and rather inconsistent that they do not mention this proposal in relation to remote gambling which is as important if not more so due to the easy access to numerous gambling websites."



http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/16867

Suicide: The Gambling Industry's DIRTY LITTLE SECRET

What does it say about a society that ignores the cost of Predatory Gambling?

What does it say about Massachusetts?

MPs demand pokie action

BY FIONA HENDERSON

14 Jul, 2012

THE tragic story of Ballarat’s Julie Smith, who committed suicide because of a gambling addiction, has echoed far and wide across Australia.

Julie hid her $1000 a week pokie habit from family and friends for 10 years before recently tRaking [sic] her own life.

Her sister Tracy spoke publicly this week to urge for problem gambling reforms so her sister’s death wouldn’t be in vain.

Anti-gambling campaigners Senator Nick Xenophon and Tasmanian MP Andrew Wilkie both weighed into the debate yesterday, while Ballarat MP Catherine King said her government was committed to pokie reforms.

Ms King said Ms Smith’s death was a tragedy and highlighted the gravity of problem gambling.

“I understand many people in our community enjoy an occasional flutter at the races, buying a lottery ticket or playing the pokies at the local pub and club,” Ms King said.

“But for some — as in this truly sad case — gambling can be highly addictive and destructive, ruining lives and destroying families, and the biggest cause of this is pokies.

“That’s why the government is committed to reforms to limit the devastating effects of problem gambling, while continuing to allow thousands of Australians to enjoy recreational gambling.”

Ms King said a large scale mandatory pre-commitment trial on gaming machines would soon be held in the ACT.

“We want to introduce electronic warnings and cost of pay displays, along with a $250 daily withdrawal limit from ATMs in gaming venues.

“And we will provide more support for counselling, self-exclusion and staff training.”

Independent Senator for South Australia and anti-gambling advocate Nick Xenophon said stories like Julie’s made a mockery of responsible gambling programs.

“The government just wants to look good and feel good,” Mr Xenophon said.

“But we need legislative change. We are dealing with a dangerous, destructive thing.
“We need reform and we need to look at the lack of accountability.”

Senator Xenophon said Julie’s story raised a wide range of issues, including the need to have smaller jackpots to make gambling less addictive.

“How can this legitimately be called entertainment when it causes people to lose money.”

He said reducing the bet to $1 per spin would cut losses to $120 an hour.

He also said mandatory pre-commitment was vital, along with decent intervention strategies and a duty of care.

“Individuals in all the major parties are concerned about this.”

Senator Xenophon said venue staff should be trained to look out for gambling addicts, as bartenders do in hotels and pubs with patrons who have too much to drink.

“There is stuff we can do. Look out for any signs of visible distress, watch for consistency, if they are playing hour after hour, and make inquiries about their welfare.”

Independent MP Andrew Wilkie, who withdrew his support from the federal government after it knocked back his proposed gambling reforms, said Julie’s story was further evidence that pokie venues should have a legislated duty of care for patrons.

“They should be heavily fined for allowing problem gamblers to sit at machines hour after hour, day after day,” Mr Wilkie said.

fiona.henderson@thecourie r.com.au

http://www.thecourier.com.au/news/local/news/general/mps-demand-pokie-action/2624010.aspx?storypage=0

Let the good times roll on, no matter the cost

Lewis Diuguid Commentary

By LEWIS DIUGUID

The Kansas City Star

Whenever wagering gets started around me — be it at casinos, office pools or for lottery tickets — I shy away, strangely offering that I never gamble.

That quirk in these times of a “dollar and a dream” seems odd to many, but it has kept me out of trouble. I have visited casinos, race tracks and places where lottery tickets are sold nationwide and watched gamblers hoping to elevate themselves to Mitt Romney’s 1 percent level.

They’re at the slot machines, the tables, the pari-mutuel betting windows, the convenience stores and the gas stations. They make their best guesses, winning a little but most often losing a lot.

None seems happy, just mesmerized by the game. That sort one-day-my-luck-will-change behavior is why the General Assembly’s effort to let casinos lend money to gamblers made about as much sense as open bars at alcoholics’ recovery meetings.

The Missouri House Financial Institutions Committee put the change into a banking bill in April. It went to the full House after approval from the Rules Committee. Fortunately it didn’t make it into law.

Gamblers and places where they play would label such legislative prudence a “nanny state” action.

Folks who want casinos to give gamblers’ loans point to Illinois.

Across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, overpaid and cash-fat professional athletes go to casinos in Illinois, where they can get credit extensions and surrender more money to gambling than most working Joes and Josephines make in a year. That looks good particularly now that Missouri casinos, which had been raking in a lot of money, are starting to see their pots topping out.

Other states such as Kansas have gotten into the casino game. That will lessen the take for casinos in Missouri, particularly in the Kansas City area.

Instead of the number of gamblers expanding to play at the increasing number of betting joints, the casinos will have to fight for the stagnant share of people willing to risk losing their money. Enabling Missouri casinos to extend credit to gamblers would have helped casinos maintain an edge — or at least compete with neighboring state casinos.

Never mind that it hurts Missourians. They don’t count when big money is at stake.

But they count when social service agencies or the state must pick up the tab for ruined gamblers.

Government, churches and community groups would potentially shoulder a greater burden in job losses, prison time for embezzling, food stamps and welfare for families without breadwinners, homeless shelters because mortgages or rent went unpaid and foster homes for kids.

But people need their freedom to do with their money what they choose, even if they are problem gamblers. The House add-on would have enabled destructive behavior. Expect the bill to return next legislative session because Missouri has been headed down this ruinous path for 20 years. First the proverbial camel had to get its nose under the tent.

That happened in 1992. Voters in the Show-Me State approved riverboat gambling, making sure that the casinos actually went on the state’s biggest rivers. It was the start of the entire hard-drinking, cigarette smoking, gambling camel working its way in.

Initially if you missed the boat, you didn’t gamble. That was a way to limit losses. As was an initial loss limit of $500 every two hours. But at the urgings of card-dealing casinos, voters changed those laws.

All 12 casinos in the state are stationary now, enabling gamblers to enter when they want. Sin — whether smoking, drinking or gambling — in these places rests very little.

Our state has to keep up and compete, right? According to the Gaming Commission, 10 of the 15 states with riverboat or land-based casinos allow gambling joints to grant credit.

The good times have to continue to roll, according to the casinos, which are big money makers in the state.

But the losers are some of our neighbors, their spouses and kids.

The community picks up the tab for those very human losses, and they are huge. The question is whether the state and our society will extend credit for rescues if the destructive games get their way.

To reach Lewis W. Diuguid, call 816-234-4723 or send e-mail to ldiuguid@kcstar.com.

Copyright 2012 The Kansas City Star. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Posted on Sun, May. 27, 2012 04:00 PM

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/05/27/3627479/diuguid-column-monday-may-28.html

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/05/27/3627479/diuguid-column-monday-may-28.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/05/27/3627479/diuguid-column-monday-may-28.html#storylink=cpy

When Gambling Addict Becomes Industry Shill

Sad commentary!

my response to david schwarz

Former AFL player, radio personality and high-profile problem gambler David Schwarz has recorded a video, where he speaks in graphic detail about his gambling years and why he believes mandatory pre-commitment for poker machines won’t work. I’ve just watched the video… my apologies, David, but in all the years I’ve listened to you on SEN, that is the biggest load of bullshit I have ever heard you come up with.


David, I’ve heard you speak of your gambling problems before. I’ve attended conferences and presentations where you spoke clearly about your love of gambling and the destruction it caused you, the pain it caused to those you love. I’ve even spoken to you in person briefly about it, although you probably don’t remember.

I don’t deny your past or reject your experiences. They were brutal and you have my utmost respect for surviving those years, and for having the courage to speak openly about it now.

But David, there is a singular difference between you and I. You were addicted to gambling; you were never addicted to poker machines.

In your video, David, you talk about your desperation for the punt. You mention poker machines a couple of times but your burning desire was the horses, and the table games at the casino. The pokies were a bit of fun when you couldn’t gamble somewhere else.

You were not a poker machine addict. You were not one of the hundreds of thousands of people who only ever gamble on the pokies. You did not have the love/hate relationship with poker machines that gambling counsellors across the country hear about every day.

David, mandatory pre-commitment wouldn’t have helped you. I agree with you on that point. But you were a problem gambler, not a poker machine addict. You were desperate to gamble on anything; your story of gambling on cockfights in Thailand is testament to that.

But David, mandatory pre-commitment and the rest of the reforms being proposed are aimed at poker machine addicts. Pre-commitment is not for horse racing or table games, or even cockfights for that matter. These reforms are about poker machines and poker machine addiction.

You told, in your video, how you would wake up each morning desperate to get out the door and start punting. How you would head straight for the paper and check the form guide. You said that for problem gamblers, “moments of clarity” don’t exist. Well, David, I would wake up each morning and swear I would never play another poker machine again. I would wake up loathing my life and what I was doing.

How’s that for a moment of clarity, David?

The saddest, most disappointing thing about your video message, David, is this:

You are employed as a responsible gambling ambassador by ALH, the Woolworths organisation that runs more poker machines than any other entity in this country.

Your video was uploaded to YouTube by the official Clubs NSW YouTube account, and was spruiked nationally in a Clubs Australia media release.

Your message has been compromised by those who are paying your way, and you have been compromised in the same way. The alternatives you list come straight from the Clubs Australia handbook.

And if your message is heeded, then thousands upon thousands of poker machine addicts, their families and friends, will be denied the opportunity to access tools that can help them break their addiction. And thousands upon thousands more, in the years to come, will continue to become addicted when this could have been prevented.

David, I respect where you’ve been, and I respect what you’ve done since then. But sadly, that respect stops here.

Massachusetts' Future

A front row seat to this controversy illuminates how citizens no longer matter over the profits of the Gambling Industry.

Widespread Gambling Addiction is promoted, a costly and draining issue, citizens have lost their voices to the Fools' Gold of increased revenues, campaign contributions and lobbyists.

Local control is sacrificed on the altar of Gambling, in spite of rosy promises.

A preview of the future of Massachusetts.

NSW deals with its own pokies pressure

The New South Wales Government has been accused of ignoring problem gambling through recent changes to poker machine laws.

Premier Barry O'Farrell struck a deal with NSW clubs in the lead-up to last year's state election.

A memorandum of understanding was struck which led to legislative changes allowing clubs to build another site without giving up as many poker machine licenses.

The concession was initially only granted in the proposed club was within a new housing estate.

But on Friday the minister responsible, George Souris, expanded the concession to clubs building within a kilometre of a new housing estate.

Opposition Leader John Robertson says Mr Souris has undermined Federal Government efforts to tackle problem gambling.

"We have a government in New South Wales that's actually trying to make it easier for clubs to relocate poker machines around the state, while we've got a Prime Minister who's trying to look at how we can address problem gambling," he said.

"The contrast couldn't be more stark. Barry O'Farrell, who wants to allow and make it easier for poker machines to be relocated, and a Prime Minister who is at least looking at ways that we can reduce problem gambling."

Greens MP John Kaye shares Labor's concerns.

"It has made the laws easier for clubs to move their pokers machines into areas of high concentration of potential addiction," Dr Kaye said.

Meanwhile a spokesman for Premier Barry O'Farrell says the the State Government will hold talks with the Commonwealth about potentially extending a trial of pre-commitment technology into NSW.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced on the weekend that mandatory pre-commitment for poker machines would be trialled in the ACT.

The Federal Government wants clubs just across the border in Yass and Queanbeyan to be included, to stop punters from skirting the trial.

Mr O'Farrell's spokesman says the Premier is opposed to the technology but will wait for a full briefing.

Sucked into the trap

Once sucked into the trap of expanded gambling, there are NO CORRECTIONS!

Not long ago, a (naive) Massachusetts lawmaker assured me that if expanded gambling didn't work out, we could just refuse to renew the licenses.

It's never been done!

Even Atlantic City renewed licenses of financially defunct Gambling Businesses.
Anything to preserve the revenues!

Local control is sacrificed.

The Government becomes more vested in the partnership with the Gambling Industry than the voters.



Baillieu breaks pokie vow
Farrah Tomazin


THE state government has reneged on an election promise to implement voluntary pre-commitment pokies technology in all Victorian gaming venues by 2013, delaying action on the vow beyond the next state election.

The federal government and the anti-pokies lobby have slammed the decision, with Canberra accusing Victoria of ''passing the buck'' and gambling activists saying there's no reason the state can't get on with it.

But the state government blames Canberra, insisting Julia Gillard's ''political dealing'' on pokies has affected its timeline.


The backflip comes amid growing community concern over the proliferation of poker machines and the gaming regulator's approval last week of an application for a new sports club in Castlemaine with 65 pokies, despite widespread opposition.

Ted Baillieu went to the last election pledging to tackle problem gambling by introducing voluntary precommitment, which gives players the choice to set their own betting limits.

Under the system, those who use the technology will be able to set a limit on how much money they wish to spend, or how long they want to play. Once that limit is reached, gamblers are locked out of play for a period.

As part of the Coalition's election policy, Victoria was meant to have the technology linked within individual gaming venues by 2013. This meant that anyone locked out of play would not have been able to move from one machine to the next. The technology was then supposed to be linked across the state by 2015-16, so that anyone reaching their limit at one venue would be locked out of play at another.

The government says it is still committed to having voluntary precommitment across the state by 2016 - more than a year after the November 2014 state election - but it is no longer ''technically feasible'' to have precommitment within gaming venues by 2013.

Emily Broadbent, a spokeswoman for Gaming Minister Michael O'Brien, said Victoria had been forced to abandon its timeline because the Commonwealth had not yet made clear, in legislation, what kind of technical standards it wanted on state-based precommitment systems.

''As this has not been done, nor has the federal government made clear that states will be permitted to determine these standards themselves without penalty, it is not technically feasible for the Victorian government to require precommitment technology to be linked within venues by 2013,'' Ms Broadbent said.

The policy shift comes two weeks after Ms Gillard ditched her deal with Independent MP Andrew Wilkie for mandatory betting limits on poker machines. The Commonwealth will trial precommitment in the ACT, and hopes to expand the technology to all pokies in the country.

Victoria insists that unless it knows what kind of technical standards the Commonwealth wants, it risks ''imposing unnecessary costs and confusion'' on the gaming industry if it honours its election pledge.

But federal Families Minister Jenny Macklin yesterday accused Mr O'Brien of ''passing the buck''.

''The Commonwealth's plans are no threat to the Victorian government delivering on this election commitment,'' she said.

The Productivity Commission recommends mandatory precommitment is the way to tackle problem gambling. But Victoria, which rakes in $1 billion in pokies taxes a year, claims a voluntary system is better because it respects the right of individuals to make their own decisions.

The gaming industry also prefers voluntary precommitment, but critics say the system fails to give enough credence to the addictive nature of gambling.

Gambling reform advocate Tom Cummings criticised the government for the decision to delay. ''There is absolutely no reason that the Victorian policy and the federal policy can't coexist,'' he said.

Opposition gaming spokesman Martin Pakula said Mr O'Brien shouldn't ''weasel out'' of his earlier commitments.

Productivity Commission figures suggest 115,000 Australians are gambling addicts and a further 280,000 are at risk.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/baillieu-breaks-pokie-vow-20120204-1qz1g.html#ixzz1lRC9L2Hp

Gambling, it’s the Australian way

Gambling, it’s the Australian way
BY JUSTIN LAW

Problem gambling in clubs and pubs along with the increasing exposure to gaming through Internet betting begs the question; why not outlaw gambling altogether?

When that question was put to Eden-Monaro member Dr Mike Kelly, his response was, “Mate, this is Australia! I don’t think you could ever get rid of gambling.”

However, there is increasing awareness of the impact that gambling addiction is having on families particularly in low socio-economic areas such as Eden, and the radical Andrew Wilkie strategy of mandatory pre-commitment was seen as a big step forward in addressing it.

But the financial impact of introducing the technology on clubs in rural areas and the subsequent loss of revenue would have been devastating.

Many clubs along the Sapphire Coast that rely so heavily on gaming revenue would have been forced to close altogether.

General manager of the Eden Fishermen’s Recreation Club, Peter Cook, said gaming represented 60 per cent of the revenue generated at the club.

“We’d like to be able to reduce that figure,” he said. “We’re looking at diversification as well in how we can better address the needs of the future without being so reliant on gaming revenue.”

However, he said it’s a big challenge, particularly in small communities. City clubs have branched into restaurant, accommodation and even nursing home ventures, but Mr Cook said these areas are already over-subscribed in Eden.

“We’d be competing against our own town and that makes it more difficult,” he said.

“That doesn’t mean we’re not addressing it. We’ve done a risk analysis and a strategic plan lately where all these things have been identified and we’re looking at how we would still be here in the community in the next 50 years.”

In the meantime there’s the work on trying to minimise problem gambling and Mr Cook said they’ve had some success there.

“In my eight years here we’ve entered into probably 30 self-exclusions - whether they’re three-month exclusions or six-month exclusions or whether they sign up again, most of those people who have signed up don’t come to the club for gambling anymore,” he said.

“So it has been a tool that has assisted the club to help them and assist with them personally as well.”

However, he said that there was more that could be done, although it would require a change of legislation to make work one idea he believes could.

“One of the best things that could happen on this issue is to have a third party approach us,” he said.

“At the moment in NSW if, say, a gentleman comes and says, ‘Oh, my girlfriend has a problem with gambling’, I can’t discuss that matter with him because of privacy rules, but if that legislation changes and we are able to listen to third parties then we’d be able to approach the people and talk to them about their potential problem.”

Mr Cook and Dr Kelly say they are now hopeful that the ACT trials will yield solid data and that will assist in further strategies to combat problem gambling.

Casinos dodge cash withdrawal limit

Once the Gambling Industry becomes a partner with the government, sensible controls to reduce Gambling Addiction are fought and resisted.


Casinos dodge cash withdrawal limit
by: Samantha Maiden and Alex White
From: Sunday Herald Sun

CASINOS will be exempt from new $250-a-day cash withdrawal limits at ATMs in pubs and clubs.

Under the Prime Minister's compromise pokie reform package, a hybrid plan to overhaul gaming, taxpayers will pay pokies operators cash incentives to participate in a multimillion-dollar trial of mandatory bet limits in Canberra.

And there will be no $1 bet limits and only a limited trial of technology that forces punters to pre-program how much they are prepared to lose.

But for most punters, the first impact of the reforms will be cash withdrawal limits at most pubs and clubs from early next year under the plan.

"Clearly, if people can keep getting more and more cash then they can be more and more at risk of putting that cash down the machine and losing it," Julia Gillard said yesterday.

"So the amount of cash available from machines will be limited to $250 per day with appropriate exemptions."

Casinos, as big tourism centres, will not be subject to ATM limits. Poker machines will also be fitted with warnings to connect with gamblers mid-play.

The trial of mandatory pre-commitment or bet limits is planned in Canberra next year.

Key crossbencher Tony Crook warned other independents to be wary of making deals with the PM after she backed away from the original pokie deal that would have seen laws passed by May.

He said: "I think the voters will see it as brutal. The PM has been seen as a great deal-maker -- now she's a deal-breaker."

But the AFL welcomed the announcement, hailing it as "sensible and pragmatic".

"The measures will have a positive impact on helping the small minority of pokies players who cannot control their play," spokesman Patrick Keane said.

The Government will also introduce 50 new financial counsellors to work with problem gamblers.

It announced plans to ban live odds during sports coverage and crack down on online betting companies offering credit.

THE GILLARD COMPROMISE

* February 2013: trial starts of pre-commitment technology on poker machines in Canberra

* The technology would see punters pre-program their betting limits before they sit down to play.

* All new machines installed will have to be fitted with pre-commitment technology from next year.

* All existing machines to be upgraded by 2016.

* ATMS in gambling venues limited to dispending $250 a day, except in some country areas.

BROKEN PROMISES

* No $1 limits on betting

* Casinos will not have to abide by new ATM rules.

* Move to test pre-commitment technology is a trial only, with no guarantee it will be implemented.

Safe to punt on some reform

Safe to punt on some reform
Colin Kruger

He may abhor poker machines, but the Tasmanian MP Andrew Wilkie sure knows how to gamble.

Whatever is happening behind closed doors in Canberra, it is hard to imagine that the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, will be able to just tear up the Wilkie agreement on gambling reform that allowed Labor to form government.

All indications to date suggest that reforms may be postponed, while trials are held to firm up the case for mandatory pre-commitment systems on poker machines, rather than legislation being hastily rushed through Parliament before May 8.


Wilkie set this artificial deadline to ensure reform was enacted while his support for the government was still critical to its survival, but his luck ran out last year when the government effectively increased its majority in the lower house.

Wilkie is now going to have to play a longer-term game, and this could go either way. On the one hand, a delay could draw some political heat out of the issue and let the government have a better run at gambling reform down the track. On the other, it could allow the poker machine industry, or the government, to white-ant the proposal.

Pokie industry interests do not appear to be counting on the latter scenario. Clubs Australia stayed in attack mode this week, criticising an Australia Institute report that suggests the cost of reforms could be between $171 million and $342 million, a fraction of its estimate of $5 billion.

Clubs' high figure may be considered a joke, but there is no doubting the fears of reform held by the recipients of poker machines' annual income of about $12 billion.

Mandatory pre-commitment, which essentially forces gamblers to determine how much they are prepared to lose, has its flaws.

While the pokie industry's estimates of the cost of reform border on the farcical, the smartcard system being proposed undoubtedly would cost a substantial amount of money.

The pre-commitment registration process would almost certainly put off some casual punters without a gambling problem.

No one knows for sure what the financial impact of pre-commitment laws would be, but some analysts appear to back Clubs Australia's forecast that mandatory pre-commitment could cut pokie revenue by as much as 40 per cent.

Pubs and clubs won't be the only ones affected. Deutsche Bank analysts forecast that the potential loss of earnings per share (EPS) in the listed gambling sector could range between 5 per cent and 36 per cent.

The biggest impact would be on Tabcorp's casino spin-off, Echo Entertainment Group, whose EPS could fall by as much as 36 per cent because of its reliance on income from poker machines, Deutsche says. By comparison, the fall in EPS for James Packer's Crown is expected to be as little as 12 per cent. Tabcorp and Tattersalls are almost completely removed from the picture because their monopoly on pokies in Victoria expires this year. However, this is all guesswork and ignores one of the most surprising criticisms that independent gambling experts have of mandatory pre-commitment : the paucity of research showing that pre-commitment actually curbs problem gambling.

In fact, some expert testimony to the joint Senate select committee on gambling reform, chaired by Wilkie, indicated that problem gamblers may gain little from pre-commitment legislation because these hopelessly addicted individuals get to set their own limits.

It appears that the promise of mandatory pre-commitment, if it works, is that it will help those in danger of addiction by setting limits when they are not in the thrall of their addiction.

If the Productivity Commission was correct in estimating that 40 per cent of the pokie industry's earnings are from problem gamblers, mandatory pre-commitment doesn't sound like such a bad deal for the industry after all.

If you want to consider a worse outcome, how about a long-term plan to phase out high-impact pokies for their low-impact counterparts over a time frame that reflects the normal replacement cycle for machines?

By low-impact we are talking maximum bets of $1 and maximum payouts of $500, exactly the kind of machines that would be exempt from mandatory pre-commitment under Wilkie's proposal.

While not foolproof in preventing gambling addiction, there is much empirical evidence to suggest this could be far more effective and far easier to implement.

If successful reform does slash earnings from poker machines, it won't be only the clubs, pubs and casinos that will feel the pain. NSW and Victoria rely on pokie revenues for more than 10 per cent of each states' income.

For Ted Baillieu's recently installed government in Victoria, the potential heartburn from pokie reform is compounded by a poisoned chalice inherited from the Labor government it deposed last year. When poker machine licences run out for Tatts and Tabcorp in August, the two companies are meant to receive a combined compensation bill of about $1 billion.

When the former premier John Brumby decided, in 2008, that, despite all evidence to the contrary, the government did not have to pay compensation for the loss of licences, all he did was ensure there would be a day of reckoning with two listed companies that are obliged to protect their shareholders' interests. Neither company has said much but their carefully worded statements make it clear legal action will be taken if Baillieu doesn't pay his predecessor's bill.



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/safe-to-punt-on-some-reform-20120120-1qa3o.html#ixzz1k66qCFwh

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.''



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/priest-lashes-out-at-church-over-problem-gambling-push-20120117-1q4rv.html#ixzz1jokYMSqE

The Wisdom of Loss Limits

Canadian pokies scheme offers lessons for Australia
Kalvin Ng reported this story

BRENDAN TREMBATH: There's a town called Sydney in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. And just like the one in Australia, it's grappling with poker machine addiction.

The government there has installed a pre-commitment card system on every machine, allowing players to set things like spending limits and track how long they've played.

Australian supporters of pre-commitment spending, such as the Tasmanian MP Andrew Wilkie, point to Nova Scotia as an example.

Kalvin Ng went to Canada to see if it works.

(Sound of pokies)

KALVIN NG: The pokies industry in Nova Scotia is tiny when compared to Australia. There are 2,800 poker machines, known locally as video lottery terminals or VLTs, in a province with fewer than a million people. By contrast Australia has almost 200,000, according to the Productivity Commission.

Almost all of the money made on the Nova Scotian machines comes from a few regular players, and gambling researchers say one in four of them can't control their play.

Debbie Langille was one of them.

DEBBIE LANGILLE: I had an affair and because of this affair I had lost everything and ended up going bankrupt. But the affair that I had was with a VLT.

KALVIN NG: Her two-year affair cost her $180,000.

DEBBIE LANGILLE: I was so ashamed. My family did not know that I had been gambling because this is an addiction that is so invisible. You don't see it in your eyes. You don't smell it on your breath. You can hide it so well.

KALVIN NG: She now wants to see the machines removed. Since 2010 the provincial government has installed a pre-commitment system on every machine. The minister responsible for gaming, David Wilson, concedes the card may further reduce the government's gambling revenues.

DAVID WILSON: And we're prepared to deal with that. I think the benefits of ensuring that we introduce responsible gaming initiatives outweigh any reduction in revenue that we might bring in when it comes to gambling.

KALVIN NG: John McMullan from St Mary's University in Halifax reviewed the early studies into the card.

JOHN MCMULLAN: I think the research did not demonstrate, to me anyway, very convincingly that it had great benefit to problem players. That was an issue that was really not, I think, researched to a clear and obvious conclusion.

KALVIN NG: Tony Schellinck from Focal Research agrees not enough is known about the effects of pre-commitment limits. But his latest study found most problem gamblers supported the card and two-thirds of them would use it.

TONY SCHELLINCK: One of the things we know from all of our past research is that the people who are at-risk and problem gamblers are constantly trying to find ways to help themselves.

KALVIN NG: From April everyone in Nova Scotia will need a pre-commitment card to play a machine but they can still decide whether or not to set limits. That's angered addiction counsellors like Mike Buckley.

MIKE BUCKLEY: For a number of years there was a commitment to moving ahead for it being mandatory and universal. And when we explained how the card system would work, I didn't have a single client who didn't say, I need that.

KALVIN NG: Former gambling addict Debbie Langille doubts she would have used the card if given a choice.

DEBBIE LANGILLE: But if it was mandatory I probably would have but I would have, again, manipulated it in a way that I would be able to continue gambling and not have to stop.

KALVIN NG: Under the current system, there's no upper limit. Gamblers can set whatever amount they want. One study found players would be happy with a spending cap, for example a $100 a day.

John Xidos heads the local company Techlink Entertainment, which developed the card and retrofitted the machines.

JOHN XIDOS: It was probably in the approximation of about $2000 a terminal. Now it's half of that. So it's down, you know, below $1000 a terminal.

KALVIN NG: He says each poker machine has a lifespan of seven to 10 years, so he says a $1000 is really a small price to pay to make them less addictive.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: Kalvin Ng with that report from Nova Scotia.

Gamble responsibly? A mantra for profit

Gamble responsibly? A mantra for profit
By Noel Preston

In an earlier piece critical of the social impact of gambling in Australia, I wrote: “Gambling creates a thirst for itself in the individual and spreads like a bushfire throughout the nation...Where is it all to end? Every added gambling facility has an effect like a rotten apple in a case...Australia faces a major problem in trying to stop a spreading contagion.

In fact I wrote this in an essay during my final year at Secondary School in 1959 – when there were hardly any pokies (or Electronic Gaming Machines as they are properly known). Fifty two years later my schoolboy forecast sounds contemporary as the Australian community debates policy proposals, spear-headed by Independent MP Andrew Wilkie, to limit the harmful impacts of pokies.

As the tone of the extract from my essay suggests, I have never been much of a gambler. However, for seven years till 2010, I was a community member of the Queensland Government’s Responsible Gambling Advisory Committee, a body charged with the duty of monitoring Queensland’s extensive gambling industry and promoting initiatives to encourage so called ‘responsible gambling’.

The implementation of Queensland's responsible gambling strategies - relying on a Code of Conduct, some in house research, assorted education initiatives, and facilitating ongoing conversation between most stakeholders - has had a limited effect. At the end of the day it is a weak harm minimisation initiative. Much sterner medicine needs to be applied if the corrosive effects of the omnipresent pokies in clubs and pubs (let alone in casinos) are to be tackled.

The community recognises this and so do most politicians. Former Queensland Premier Wayne Goss gave voice to this opinion when asked a few years ago what he most regretted doing when he was in government. His straightforward reply was, “legislating for the introduction of poker machines in pubs and clubs”. If with hindsight, his government’s error in the case of clubs, is regrettable, the installation of pokies in Queensland hotels was always indefensible.

But is the current scale of the problem, on a cost benefit calculus, one that warrants drastic action?

After all, we know that most Australians gamble within their means and for entertainment. We also know that the budgets of our state governments (with the exception of Western Australia, the only state jurisdiction without pokies) are significantly augmented by gambling revenue. At the same time many clubs provide significant benefits to their local communities through charitable gifts, facilities for entertainment at subsidised prices as well as employment. By the way, for casinos, instituting ‘responsible gambling’ measures represents a cost they can easily absorb. Hence we hear little from them in the current public debate.

As we also know, there is another side to the story. The Productivity Commission has looked at both sides of the story twice in the last decade or so. In both Reports the Commission confirms that over 40 per cent of the revenue from poker machines comes from Australia’s problem gamblers who now number around 115,000 and whose addiction is overwhelmingly played out through pokies. The Commission Report also reminds us that Australia tops the international list of per capita gambling. Moreover, the poker machines we have installed are overwhelmingly high intensity machines, not generally the case overseas. This means the Australian gambling public are exposed to a very powerful instrument of potential addiction.

But how is the downside of gambling's cost to be measured?

One fascinating measure reported by researchers is that gambling is the most common reason for fraud with an average loss of $1.1 million per incident. Essentially however, it is the sad story of misery which gambling addiction wreaks on addicts themselves and their families – altogether around one million Australians - while other harmful effects ripple across our communities. Financial devastation, family breakdown, crime, suicide, homelessness, disadvantage to innocent children are part of that story, creating a huge cost to our welfare systems, which, of course is a cost to all taxpayers.

The story of problem gambling in Australia has a significant post script often ignored: beyond the addicts there are those who waste money they cannot really afford, while there is also a category of ‘at risk’ gamblers who are flirting with the possibility that their gambling habit will escalate to a hopeless addiction.

In all sorts of forums, all stakeholders in the gambling industry declare they are ready to address the problem gambler problem, and in many cases they can genuinely claim they are already onto the case. After all, isn't that why we hear and see the slogan all the time, “Gamble Responsibly”! But the steps they resist tenaciously are those that threaten their bottom line. This is hardly surprising as many clubs derive more than 70 per cent of their revenue from gambling, while the take for state governments can be as high as 17 per cent of the revenue they raise.

With such a conflict of interest, state governments and clubs are most unlikely to lead the way in significant gambling reform. It also explains why, in the current campaign against Mandatory Pre-Commitment (MPC), clubs overstate the negative impacts virtually proclaiming the world (as they know it) will end.

In a futile endeavour to take the high moral ground over the MPC proposals, Clubs Australia resorts to arguments about democratic rights and assaults on the freedom of the individual. They allege their opponents are turning Australia into a nanny state, blindly ignoring the fact that the state often creates regulations limiting freedoms, in the interests of the community, from compulsory seatbelts in cars to curtailing the availability of harmful substances.

So thank heavens for Andrew Wilkie MP and Senator Nick Xenophon, and the Australian Churches Task Group with spokespersons like Reverend Tim Costello, who have created a climate in which politicians on both sides of politics can entertain courageous actions to limit the damage of the poker machine industry, building on the data and recommendations of the Productivity Commission. Well done to the Gillard government in signalling it will stand up for reasonable legislation (which takes into consideration local impacts) to implement MPC.

Sadly, the Opposition leader has seemingly come to a different conclusion, one that smells of political expediency rather than moral leadership in the national interest. However, maybe the right decision will also be the politically correct view if the result of a poll announced last July is accurate. Australian National University researchers found that 74 per cent of respondents agreed with the proposition that “people should be limited to spending an amount they nominate before they start gambling”.

Apparently, the public has sound instincts on this issue, for MPC is premised on the common sense view that once gamblers are ‘in the zone’, mesmerised by all the bells and whistles of the gaming room, they are less likely to make safe choices. In a recent article in the respected medical journal Lancet Dr David Hodgins of the University of Calgary gave support to the anticipated Australian MPC initiative adding that it is likely to give problem and at risk gamblers some defence against their vulnerability to myths like the belief that the only way to recover losses is to continue gambling or the belief that a win is due after several losses.

While it is arguable that MPC will not “cure” entrenched problem gambling, its impact on the bottom line of big clubs, especially in large urban centres, is likely to expose those clubs who, unjustifiably, rely on problem gamblers to maintain their operations.

There is no suggestion of a prohibitionist approach here. However, reducing the sheer volume of gambling in the community has to be helpful, but it is a lesson we learn slowly. If Mr Wilkie and Co. have a win this time there are plenty of other challenges awaiting them: internet gambling and escalating sports betting for a start. Come to think of it, my schoolboy essay has not really dated: Australia faces a major problem in trying to stop a contagion.

Growing Gambling Addiction

Xenophon hoses down compo for clubs Lisa Martin

Calls to compensate community clubs over planned poker machine reforms have been dismissed as a red herring.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has indicated she is open to discussing issues such as compensation for charities that might lose out under new poker machine rules.

"We are in discussions with the gaming industry and of course we're open to discussions with groups of all types," she told ABC Radio in Brisbane.

"We want to get this right. We want to get it right so that it works for everyone."

But independent senator Nick Xenophon says discussion about compensation for community groups is a "red herring."

"This debate should be about good public policy," Senator Xenophon told reporters in Canberra.

Under a deal struck with independent MP Andrew Wilkie, Labor wants pokie players to pre-set a gambling limit on how much they want to spend, in an effort to stem problem gambling.

The pre-commitment technology would only apply to high-intensity betting machines.

Mr Wilkie is also pushing for a reduction in high-intensity machines and wants clubs to reprogram machines to cap losses at $120 an hour rather than $1200 an hour.

Clubs are rallying against the changes, saying it will cost them too much.

Ms Gillard said the plan was not about stopping people who enjoyed a Friday night out at their local club.

"Probably too many Australians know someone who's wrecked their life because of poker machine addiction and probably they want to see a better way of dealing with that," she said.

"Well so do I and we'll work through to get the scheme right."

Senator Xenophon said people should consider the fact that 100,000 Australians already had problem gambling addictions and lose $21,000 a year each.

Senator Xenophon said 200,000 more were at risk of developing problem gambling habits.

"We didn't compensate clubs and hotels when we put in smoking bans," he said.

The senator is concerned about continued misinformation in the reform debate.

"You can't trust the pokie industry to properly represent research, they would look at the bible and say it's highly critical of Jesus," he said.

Addiction prediction

Addiction prediction
by Emma Schmidt
THREE-QUARTERS of Monash’s problem gamblers will still be fighting their addiction in future years, new research reveals.

And almost six per cent of gamblers will have increased their risk of becoming gambling addicts.

The Department of Justice’s Victorian Gambling Study: A Longitudinal Study of Gambling and Public Health - Wave Two Findings revealed sobering figures for Monash, which is consistently the second-highest spending municipality on poker machines in the state according to Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation statistics.

The study recorded gambling behaviours, health and well being of 5000 participants over three years.

It found gambling behaviours for 10 per cent of participants were not static, instead, moved between the categories of non-gambler, non-problem gambler, low-risk gambler, moderate-risk gambler or problem gambler. Researchers also found several factors were associated with an overall increase in risk category, including:

POOR general and mental health;

ONE parent families, speaking a language other than English at home;

AN education level at year 10 or lower;

TROUBLE at work; and

BETTING weekly or more on the horses, harness racing or the greyhounds.

Monash University Associate Professor Damien Jolley said the study gave further weight to the call for mandatory spending limits on poker machines, and said gambling was “exploiting the marginalised in our community”.

“I would certainly advocate for mandatory spending limits,” Prof Jolley said.

Gamblers Help Eastern community educator Diane Jenkins praised the study for providing behavioural information about gamblers.

Estimates Problem Gambling Costs $4.7 Billion a Year

Pro-pokie campaign not worth a punt
By Ben Peterson

I was as worried as anyone when I wandered down to my local pub to find a poster over the door announcing the government was trying to shut it down.

In their national campaign against proposed changes to poker machine use, Clubs Australia and the Australian Hotel Association (AHA) say “some bloke in Tasmania” (Independent MP Andrew Wilkie) is trying to push through laws that will bankrupt our pubs, destroy our communities and put us all under more government surveillance.

As well as posters and coasters in pubs, Clubs Australia and the AHA have run TV commercials. The commercials explain the threat is not just to those who want a punt, but to our very way of life — it’s un-Australian.

So naturally I went home and investigated the matter, ready to go off to war against those evil bureaucrats in Canberra. But to my surprise (and relief) I couldn't find any trace of a wowser inspired assault on society.

What is actually being proposed is not a 1984-style assault on our civil liberties. What’s proposed is a system of self-regulation for poker machine users, in that you set your own limits to how much you gamble.

It’s limited to poker machines, not other forms of betting. There’s no talk of a government register or surveillance.

Contrary to the hysterical screams of industry executives, no one is trying to stop me putting a tenner on the Bulldogs for the footy on Saturdays (although the way they’ve been playing, someone probably should).

The government isn’t going to kick down your door and confiscate the sweep when you have the neighbours round to watch the race on cup day. “That bloke in Tassie” has nothing against you having a casual punt.

The inspiration behind all this is that we need to find ways to help problem gamblers.

What’s proposed is a targeted system. To play the slots you will need to get a card or sign in (like you would to have a meal at my local club) and set a limit on how much you’re willing to lose before you start playing.

This doesn’t target the regular punter. This is meant to help those who are problem gamblers. People who are struggling with gambling problems can then limit their losses, and not get caught up in the game and extend their stay.

The reality is that gambling addiction is a serious problem. The government estimates the social cost of problem gambling adds up to $4.7 billion a year.

Up to half a million Australians are at risk of becoming, or already are, problem gamblers. One in six people who regularly play the pokies is a problem gambler, and three quarters of problem gamblers have issues with poker machines.

Contrary to the popular myth, problem gambling is something that affects Australian youth. Gamblers aged 18-24 lose more on poker machines than any other group.

Problem gambling is a social issue that affects millions of Australians. The proposed regulation will go some way to helping ease that problem. Why then the hysterics?

Turns out gambling is a rather profitable business. Pokies alone generate about $12 billion a year for their owners (which isn't really surprising as they're programmed so that it’s impossible for you to win). That’s big money.

For those at the winners’ end of the spectrum, that’s 12 billion reasons to stick with the status quo.

Twelve billion dollars is a huge amount of money that goes out of community pockets and into the hands of private businesses, often big corporations.

The gambling lobby tries to present this as something that will hurt local community groups. But the biggest venues for pokies machines, (that generate the biggest annual profit) are the casinos, such as Melbourne Crown casino, which is the largest casino in the southern hemisphere.

Crown boasts a gaming space that covers an area equal to more than two city blocks. In 2009/10, Crown casino ran at a profit of $288.4 million, which doesn't go back into community projects such as may be the case with some sports clubs, but into the hands of shareholders.

Even something as simple as taking measures that can help problem gamblers cuts into this very lucrative business, and those profiting from it don't want that. It’s pure old-fashioned greed.

It’s not often that the government will pick a winner. It's even rarer to see the government go against such a huge and profitable industry. These laws, if they can get up, could have a real impact on reducing problem gambling and its social cost.

However, if we want to see problem gambling reduced even further, we need to see further regulations.

Let’s ban advertising for gambling, in the same way smoking ads are banned. This would have a dramatic effect.

We could apply loss restrictions to the pokies, so people can only lose a certain amount in any sitting. Regulations could be placed on the odds of the machines, to put punters closer to a level footing.

There’s a lot we can do, and a lot that needs to be done. But the one thing that's a sure bet is that if these changes were ever proposed they would be fought tooth and nail by the industry.

Any affront to power, like the one being proposed by “that bloke in Tassie”, will be dependent on our ability as a community to understand it and rally around that cause.

We need to campaign and build alternative bases of power based in our communities that can push back against the pressure of industry groups.

Without that, real social progress draws some pretty long odds.