CLUBS Australia, the peak body representing pubs and clubs across Australia, has attacked a Federal Government plan to make gamblers place a value on how much money they are prepared to spend on poker machines before being permitted to use them.
Federal Independent MP Andrew Wilkie is behind the scheme, which is known as "mandatory pre- commitment", and he wants the law in place by 2014.
Mr Wilkie says he isn't against gambling or "people having a punt"; nor against clubs or hotels, but is against "problem gambling and all that can follow: bankruptcy, depression, family breakdown, crime and, tragically, suicide".
Clubs Australia, however, is launching a $20 million advertising campaign against the move, saying it is "un-Australian", that if it is passed in Parliament it will cost jobs, and it says the industry wants the scheme to be voluntary.
The Government asked Clubs Australia to hold off on the advertising campaign but the request was rejected and an advertising battle is about to ensue.
I'm not opposed to putting a few dollars through the pokies but I am opposed to problem gambling.
Gambling counsellors from Relationships Australia say gambling can be an addiction that destroys families and lives and, as with any addiction, the addict needs help.
I've heard many sad tales about children going hungry because mum or dad fed the pokies instead of them; of spousal abuse after a week's wages suddenly disappeared into the machines; of job losses, bankruptcy and crime as a result of gambling addiction.
These consequences are very real and they cost our communities far more than just money.
I don't know whether "mandatory pre-commitment" will solve the problem.
I don't know the answer to problem gambling. However, when poker machine users in the Redlands alone are losing more than $4.5 million every month - more than $150,000 every day - across the city's 1258 poker machines, surely an answer is needed.
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