Ever the media opportunist, Labor leader Kevin Rudd has delivered an anti-pokies position to The Australian that produced a front page story the day after Jonathan Holmes’ demolition of the insidious NSW pokies industry was aired on Four Corners.

That said, Rudd is proving to be a highly effective media player and the timing of his move couldn’t be better. Just like his barbecue stopping “supermarkets charge too much” position, Rudd has struck a chord with an anti-pokies position.

However, Mark Latham did the same thing back in 2004 and we’re yet to see the detail of Rudd’s proposal.

The cold hard facts of the situation is that Labor states are all hurtling hugely into debt and just can’t afford to tackle their budgetary addiction to gaming revenue. This is why NSW is again trying to flog its $20 billion electricity industry — they simply can’t issue another 20,000 pokies licences to save their deteriorating budget position.

The only Rudd pokies policy position of substance would be a buyout of pokies licences — and that will cost billions. No decent reform is cheap but that is what Rudd should do and that is what Peter Costello has failed to do — even though his own brother leads the anti-pokies agenda in Australia.

The big question is whether church-going Rudd will really have the clout to tackle Labor’s unholy alliance with the pokies industry, which extends to many millions of dollars in annual donations.

The ALP is even the only major political party in the world that runs its own pokies operation through the five different Labor Clubs in Canberra which deliver campaign funding of more than $1 million a year. What a disgrace — the party for the battler exploiting poor problem gamblers for profits.

Then you have the Labor Party’s longstanding connections with the gaming industry, including the following:

Barrie Unsworth: the former NSW Premier became a director of the NSW TAB

Keith Delacy: the former Queensland Treasurer is chairman of Cairns Casino

John Ducker: the late factional powerbroker and Senator was chairman of pokies giant Aristocrat

Joe Meissner: the former NSW Labor identity was president of the Australian Poker Association and also ran Sydney’s last illegal casino

Richard Face: former NSW gaming and racing minister set up a consultancy to help the industry before he’d even left Parliament

Neville Wran: the former NSW Premier was chairman of internet gaming company ebet.

Good luck Kevin. The Labor Party is more responsible for Australians being the world’s biggest gamblers than anyone else and now you’re going to try and unscramble the egg.