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This week the NSW government received proposal from James Packer’s Crown Group to build a second casino in Sydney at Barangaroo. The NSW Government has supported the proposal on the condition that the casino contains no poker machines. There’s good reason for the exclusion: we know that poker machines are incredibly damaging to our community, and far more addictive than other forms of gambling.1 But if the ban on poker machines isn’t in legislation, it can be reversed overnight at the whim of the Premier of the day. And there is good reason to think that it could be.
Packer’s Crown seem to be running a classic thin edge of the wedge strategy. Step 1: Get approval for the casino by agreeing to a ban on poker machines. Step 2: build the casino at a cost of $1 billion. Step 3: once the casino is built and the money invested, cajole the State Government into lifting the ban by saying that the casino has to have poker machines to make the business profitable.
Prevention is better than cure, and to stop a new blight of pokies in NSW, it’s crucial that this pokies ban be set in legislation; not just planning documents that can be changed at the stroke of a Ministerial pen. Use your voice – contact the NSW Premier, Barry O’Farrell to demand a legal ban on poker machines at a new Sydney Casino.
http://www.getup.org.au/packers-pokies-palace
Yesterday, campaign research took me to the gaming floor in the Crown Casino, Melbourne. From where I stood in the middle of that vast space, poker machines and gaming tables stretched on so far that I couldn’t see where the building ended on my left or right. You could get lost following the twisted paths between banks of machines and clusters of tables that seem to go on forever.
The electronic music and flashing lights made me feel disoriented, both stimulated and empty. At lunch time on a Wednesday, the place was packed. I watched as a mesmerised patron perched on a stool fed fifty dollar notes into the poker machine in front of her, barely pausing in her play to register the result of each spin. It made me think of the whistleblowers who have come to GetUp to tell how teams of psychologists have spent years designing nasty tricks to make these machines more engrossing, more addictive and more dangerous. Sydney doesn’t need a place like that.
GetUp members have campaigned against dangerous poker machines by calling for Federal reform and by demanding change from companies like Coles and Woolworths who own and operate poker machines. We’ve pushed government and industry to be accountable for the damage caused by problem gambling. But it will be two steps forward and one back, if a massive Packer-owned Casino were allowed to operate poker machines in a few years time.
Don’t let Packer’s Crown group get away with building another poker machine palace in Sydney. Let’s contact Premier Barry O’Farrell now to demand that the ban on pokies goes into legislation.
http://www.getup.org.au/packers-pokies-palace
Thanks for all that you do.
Carl, for the GetUp Team.
PS – So far Barry O’Farrell hasn’t made any public commitment around poker machines at a new casino. While a legal ban on machines would be the best outcome, pushing the Premier to make a public commitment that the casino won’t contain poker machines would also make a big difference. Use your voice and contact the Premier now.
1 Productivity Commission 2010, Gambling, Report no. 50, Canberra.
GetUp is an independent, not-for-profit community campaigning group. We use new technology to empower Australians to have their say on important national issues. We receive no political party or government funding, and every campaign we run is entirely supported by voluntary donations. If you’d like to contribute to help fund GetUp’s work, please donate now! If you have trouble with any links in this email, please go directly to www.getup.org.au. To unsubscribe from GetUp, please click here. Authorised by Sam Mclean, Level 2, 104 Commonwealth Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010.