A Cairns woman was jailed for 6 months for stealing monies from her employer to fuel her gambling addiction. I left a comment on the page and am posting it in here as well.
The revenue raised from poker machines is not worth the devastation addiction can cause. Drugs, alcohol etc are addictive and so are poker machines and whilst drugs such as pot remain illegal, poker machines are not. To say that some play without becoming addicted is fair and banning machines would be punishing those who are responsible gamblers. However, an addict does not deliberately set out to become addicted in the first instance. There are many addictions, be it coffee, cigarettes, computer games and the likes, but the problems of being addicted to poker machines has far reaching ramifications and they should be banned. Addicts are from all walks of life and gender, you wouldn't necessarily know one if you passed them on the street.
7 comments:
I used to work in the gambling industry, one of the most stressful jobs going as you're dealing directly with people and taking their money right before their eyes. They can get quite nasty. But I don't like gambling and it's a complete mugs game. Additionally I have also seen the devestation gambling causes to people and their families. One of the things I detest that this goverment has done is the way they are constantly encouraging gambling and increasing the number of casinos. When I worked in them many moons ago it was heavily regulated, not so any more. People don't seem to realise that casinos are a business, not a charity, and the business is money. The odds are stacked against the punter, and the government sees it as a means of taking yet more money from the citizens through yet more taxes etc. So at the heart of it is greed. The greed of the socialist government that won't stop until they've bled everyone dry of as much money as they can, the greed of the casino operator, the greed of the gambler.
Well done, nunya. I like your comment. Gambling causes so much misery, yet it is not recognised a an addiction in the way that alcoholism is, for instance. Yet in some ways it is worse.
I do bet occasionally.
On football and elections.
Ginro has this spot on... The Government promote the casinos because the gain money from them...
What a sad corrupt way for things to go....
I agree that with the statement that addicts are from all walks of life and you necessarily wouldn't know one if you passed them on the street or... worked with them.
It is not only casinos or slot machines but lottery tickets as well.
I worked with a lady, I thought a lot of. We had so much in common. Children the same age, we were the same age. What I didn't know she was addicted to playing the lottery and ended up stealing money (a lot of it) from the company. She was caught and was arrested and I didn't even know she had a problem. It ruined her marriage. Her children were affected so much. You wouldn't have known if you had passed her on the street,that she held a terrible secret.
Thank you all for your comments, the government here will never ban poker machines as the revenue collected is high. Although the monies are allegedly going back to community/welfare groups where some no doubt help fund gamblers anon programs, what price misery?
Living dangerously is my idea of gambling. e.g. My ex-wife has just found out I told my daughter that her mother is a psychopath.
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