Why we need gambling reform laws

For broadcast on 2CH Sydney, 29 Dec 2013.

The Salvation Army’s Major Kelvin Alley recently gave evidence to a Senate committee hearing into the Abbott Government’s proposed repeal of modest gambling reform legislation passed in 2012 by the Gillard Government.  Major Alley said:

The Salvation Army, along with the Australian Churches Gambling Taskforce, worked very hard with the previous government to achieve what was achieved.  We felt progress was significant in terms of having national regulation of poker machines especially, and controls over the use of what are deemed to be dangerous and harmful consumer products…

The national regulator is the conscience of the nation, and ensures that those who prey on the losses of the addicted and others are required to act reasonably…

You tell me the suburbs where unemployment is the highest … and where school achievements are the lowest – where society’s most vulnerable live – [and] I will tell you where the intentional concentration of poker machines are targeted the most.

I’m Rod Benson for the NSW Council of Churches.