Are the gambling reform proposals right for Australia?
There is no doubt in the mind of most reasonable Australian citizens that pokie machines have become a problem in many areas of the country.
With more and more people becoming addicted to these gambling machines, the pressure has long been mounting on government officials to remedy the problem in a way that will not only help those suffering from addiction, but in a way that will also not damage the coffers of state finances in the process.
This is why the new legislation being proposed is such a contentious area, because many people see the reforms as incredibly harmful to the wealth of each state in Australia.
If we take just one state as an example then the scope of this issue can be seen in a glaring way, and in a light that casts doubts over the idea that Mr Wilkie and the Labor government have proposed to combat gambling addiction.
The state of Victoria has a huge amount of pokie gaming machines throughout the bars, pubs and clubs of its territory, all of which were made possible by a financially weak government in the early 1990s.
They were allowed due to the huge amounts of tax revenue that they would bring in, therefore increasing the amount of wealth available for the government to spend on essential projects such as housing and healthcare.
This has put the finances of Victoria in a tough position though now, as currently they are hugely reliant on the money that pokies bring in to continue providing the services that their citizens have become so used to.
Should these new gambling laws go through, then Victoria will be put in a difficult position. Yes, they will have a population that is safer from the vice of gambling, but at the same time they will have to find new ways of increasing their revenue.
This could lead to a rise in taxes, or to the cutting of budgets – both of which would not be seen as favourable by the majority of voters. This begs the question – is it right that the minority of the population who have gambling issues should be allowed to control the wealth of a whole state?
If we analyse the figures, then the scope of Australia’s gambling problem can be seen in its full light. Throughout the nation there are about 600,000 people who play pokies once a week, with nearly 100,000 of them saying that they find this habit to be one that they are unable to control.
While these numbers seem large though, it must be remembered that this figure of 100,000 is only a very small percentage of the overall population – meaning that the huge majority of people are going to have their lifestyles disrupted by the fact that a few can’t control themselves.
The introduction of these new proposals would be the wrong thing for Australia to introduce.
Trying to curb gambling addiction through these means won’t prevent people from gambling – it will just see them turn to other means, such as online pokies. As with many problems education is the answer, and the money being spent on reform would be far more useful if used to teach children throughout the land about the problems that gambling can lead to.
Tags: australia, Australian gambling, Victoria
This entry was written by Jamie on Monday, June 13th, 2011 at 6:20 pm and is filed under News.
