Wilkie’s gambling mission could be a good bet for success
Andrew Wilkie is currently the hot talking point of Australian politics, mainly due to his seemingly one man crusade to tackle the gambling industry head on and to introduce tough new regulations on them. The Tasmanian has also managed to gain $340 million from the government as well, in order to rebuild the main hospital in Tasmania – the Royal Hobart Hospital. With one of his goals achieved, he is now free to fully focus on gambling reform – a debate that he is determined to win at any cost.
Originally Mr Wilkie wanted the removal of every single pokie games machine in Australia – something that was seen by everybody to be a wholly unachievable goal. Where people underestimated Mr Wilkie though is in the fact that he too almost certainly knew this goal to be beyond the scope of reason – meaning that his proposal on reducing the maximum bet amount now looks much more pragmatic than it would have previously done.
In fact, Mr Wilkie has been even more clever in regards to the timing of his new proposal, as he has waited for the backlash to start from the gambling companies before introducing it. With the companies effectively saying that removing pokie games would be “un-Australian”, he is now in the position of looking like a reasonable man with reasonable ideas on reform – not the crusading anti-gambling zealot that he was perceived to be previously. This has strengthened his hand with the pubic throughout the country, as well as making him more attractive for the currently undecided MPs to back when the debate comes to a head.
Only a fool would say that Mr Wilkie has won already though, as the pokies lobby are an unbelievably powerful force throughout the country. They have huge amounts of capital to spend and are currently running an aggressive advertising campaign in an effort to sway public opinion towards their beliefs. They can also rely on several MPs to back their efforts, as many are concerned about the economic problems that could be caused should gambling clubs start to go out of businesses – namely rising unemployment and therefore more people claiming benefits from the government. This means that the voters on the fence must decide – what is worse, a gambling problem or the fact that many people could lose their jobs?
Ultimately, the decision regarding whether this reform goes through will come down to two men – MPs Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor, who are both independent from either side and also still undecided on how to vote. Expect both sides to woo these two men in the coming weeks, as with their votes secured either side will be virtually guaranteed victory.
As we are talking about gambling, then the smart money is definitely on Wilkie though. His track record for getting what he wants ans his desire to see reform mean that the odds are stacked in his favour when it comes to reforming what many see is a poorly regulated and problematic gambling industry in Australia.
Source: The OnlinePokiesClub.com - the number one site for news, reviews and details on free pokies.
Tags: Australian gambling, Pokies reform
This entry was written by admin on Saturday, November 19th, 2011 at 11:23 pm and is filed under News.
