The role of Christians in public debate is being cemented in the NSW election due on March 25. Anti-gambling Christians are at the centre of the hottest issue in the NSW election campaign: gambling reform. Premier Dominic Perrotet took the initiative in promising cashless gaming cards with a daily spending limit.”
Labor’s promised response of a “comprehensive package” has arrived. Leader Chris Minns announced Labor would ban political donations from pubs and clubs in New South Wales, run a 500-machine trial of cashless pokies, and ban the advertising of pokie parlours – the garish VIP Lounge signs outside pubs.
“NSW Labor’s policy may well have been written in a back room of ClubsNSW” said anti-gambling activist Tim Costello. “This proposal is absolutely guaranteeing ClubsNSW support. They know this is exactly how you defeat a mandatory card. This is effectively still kicking it into the long grass.”
Speaking of the gambling industry proposals for self-exclusion with face recognition, Costello said, “Voluntary is as useless as voluntary brakes in a car.”
Stu Cameron, CEO of Wesley Mission in Sydney, told Labor it has a long way to go.
“Here’s what I really DON’T like about NSW Labor’s gambling reform policy announced by @ChrisMinnsMP” said Cameron
“1. Zero commitment to a universal cashless card, THE most important reform.
“2. Reduction of cash loading limits from $5000 to $500 for new machines only. Incomprehensible.
“3. A statewide self-exclusion system that relies on facial recognition technology. This is the industry’s dream, right from their playbook. Far better and more effective is a system connected to a mandatory cashless card.”
The background to the debate is the finding of the NSW Crime Commission’s Project Islington that “a significant amount of money which is put through poker machines is the proceeds of crime,” including money from the drug trade. It recommended the introduction of a cashless card.
Cameron liked part of Labor’s platform.
1. Banning of political donations from clubs.
2. Closing loopholes that allow the proliferation of pokie den signage.
3. Commitment to reduce machine numbers.
However, the reduction in numbers is only a promise to enforce existing caps, and forfeiture rules. For a real reduction to be effective, “it needs to be a reduction specifically in areas where there is the greatest levels of gambling harm,” Cameron responded. “We know that the industry is moving poker machines into vulnerable areas like Canterbury-Bankstown, Blacktown and Cumberland council areas, and there should be an immediate ban like Fairfield’s on additional machines in already severely impacted areas.”
Wesley Mission’s Cameron joins the crossbench led by Independent Alex Greenwich in saying Labor’s policy does not go far enough, and calling for the Liberals to provide more detail, especially around daily spending caps. The Greens NSW policy is for poker machines to be removed from pubs and restricted to clubs, reversing the policy of the Carr Labor government, which allowed poker machines to spread to every street corner pub.
The original announcement by Perrotet was warmly backed by Christians. “We welcome the Premier’s statement. The members of the NSW Council of Churches encounter the aftermath of problem gambling all too frequently,” said the Council’s President, Archbishop Kanishka Raffel. “Furthermore, the hidden exploitation of poker machines for money laundering is deeply disturbing in its implications for our society.”