Ever since ClubsNSW led the campaign to stymie the 2010 Andrew Wilkie deal with Julia Gillard to curb gambling harm on poker machines through a mandatory pre-commitment scheme, no state or federal government has been prepared to take on Australia’s mighty gambling industry.
This is an industry that has nearly doubled annual revenues to almost $25 billion over the past 15 years; $14 billion of that comes from Australia’s 200,000 poker machines, almost half of which are in New South Wales.
Although Labor has a far greater shame file in explaining how Australians became so heavily fleeced by the gambling industry, it was the NSW Liberals who signed three consecutive pre-election MOUs with ClubsNSW which basically promise to continue to let the industry ran rampant across the state.
However, the game started to change when federal law enforcement agencies raised concerns about extensive money laundering at Crown Resorts in Melbourne and Perth, and then investigative journalist Nick McKenzie unleashed with a hit on 60 Minutes in 2019.
The NSW Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA) had long been regarded as a toothless tiger but it had the power to launch a public judicial inquiry into Crown which proved to be devastating for the company, particularly in relation to a torrent of revelations about blatant money laundering by its high-roller clients.
They don’t call their gambling ministers gambling ministers in NSW, preferring to hide it behind the more politically acceptable racing portfolio.
In April 2019 Victor Dominello took over the gambling portfolio from the predictably compliant National Party MP Paul Toole, who now finds himself as Nationals leader and deputy premier after of John Barilaro’s departure. After Toole, Barilaro and then premier Gladys Berejiklian capitulated with another extraordinary pre-election MOU in October 2018 which protected ClubsNSW from change over the next four years, it looked like meaningful reform was a lost cause.
However, it didn’t take Dominello long to become a critic of the industry as the Crown Resorts allegations started to roll in July 2019.
His broader portfolio included customer service and digital transformation, leading him to embrace a mandatory gambling card which would both discourage money laundering and better inform interventions when gamblers were suffering significant harm.
A relationship was built with Australia’s leading gambling reform advocate, Tim Costello, so much so that the former World Vision CEO and older brother of Peter Costello went public on December 9, declaring:
Victor Dominello has been the first minister I’ve worked alongside in my 25 years of campaigning to attempt to proactively address these systemic issues. If he is taken away in the upcoming cabinet reshuffle it will be a telltale sign that the industry, not the premier, is calling the shots.
Alas, it wasn’t enough to save Dominello. He was stripped of his gambling responsibilities in Sunday’s reshuffle after a brutally effective campaign by ClubsNSW. This sparked a savage response from Costello, although at least Dominello remains in cabinet focusing on customer service and digital government.
The new gambling minister without title is Nationals MP Kevin Anderson, who as the minister responsible for “lands, water, hospitality and racing” is expected to ditch the gambling card idea and resume normal compliant service for the industry.
However, that might not be as easy as it sounds after ILGA chairman Philip Crawford publicly called for an independent judicial inquiry into the enormous NSW pokies industry last week and then the little known NSW Crime Commission came out of nowhere to announce its own powerful investigation into club and pub money laundering, a move which was backed by premier Dominic Perrottet.
As for Labor, it remains completely missing in action on gambling reform matters, as usual, presumably as it counts the profits from the $50 million-plus a year that gamblers lose at its six pokie venues in Sydney and Canberra.
Like self-described “clubs man” Michael Daley, Luke Foley before that and even going all the way back to Bob Carr’s crazy 1998 decision to introduce pokies into NSW pubs, current NSW Labor leader Chris Minns appears to be completely captured by the pokies industry, refusing to publicly back Dominello’s push for a gambling card to crack down on criminal money laundering.
NSW gamblers lost a record $630 million to poker machines — excluding Sydney’s Star casino — in November alone. That’s $21 million a day. If that monthly run-rate keeps up, the annualised pub and club losses will hit $7.6 billion in 2022, confirming NSW as the most gambling-saturated jurisdiction in the world.
All it would take is for Perrottet and Minns to have a conversation and agree to a bipartisan approach to long overdue gambling reform. Alas, we’re a long way from that when the pokies industry can seemingly pick and choose which minister will regulate it.
Should NSW introduce a gambling card? Let us know your thoughts by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name if you would like to be considered for publication in Crikey’s Your Say column. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.
I find it amazing that it is universally recognized that driving a motor vehicle whilst under the influence of alcohol or a drug is an offense.
So the government supports getting people drunk – and then whilst drinking encourage them to gamble. What a beautiful irresponsibly corrupt idea.
Says it all about the morality of our political class – including the bible bashing hypocrites.
Andrew Wilkie and Tim Costello two great men of ideas nobbled by the hypocritical greedy pollies.
Sadly, I fear it is just a matter of time, as trust is replaced by narcissism, before Australia imports the violence towards politicians as we see in the USA.
It appears that a congratulatory comment by respected CEO is sufficient to alert the venal forces to side-line a responsible minister attempting to reform a scum industry. The only winners in gambling are those who own the game.
Hilarious to read that ‘racing’ is seen as a more virtuous title for a minister than gambling. As if.
For a while, the gambling lobby wanted us to call it “gaming.” I guess the rise of online computer gaming put an end to that.
Shame on NSW!
FFS- what a sad sick society we have become!!! Where is the fun in sitting in a garish club/casino, devoid of natural light and wasting money, sometimes lots of money. We hear a lot about personal responsibility; this is where it needs to be
exercised!
Thanks for the reminder that COVID is not the only pathological virus running riot in our community Stephen.
I have just finished reading Bernard Keane’s article lamenting the decline of democracy in Australia. Well Stephen, if what you describe here is ‘democracy’, then you can shove it up your ….. (well) ….. jumper (will do). What you have reported on here is not ‘democracy’ but blatant and flagrant plutocracy at its worst. I really doubt that our democracy has the wherewithal to deal with a situation like the one you describe here.
I can tell you one thing Stephen, if I had the power I would not just limit the ability of the gambling industry to rip-off the vulnerable and destroy lives, I would shut the whole thing down – immediately!!. Full Stop!!
This is why some China watchers consider their system can be more democratic than ours – if the government wants to stop something harmful, it can. Our governments are too beholden to corporate interests (gambling, big tech, big banks, big consulting companies, fossil fuel companies, etc). And of course, in that paragon of ‘democracies’, the US, the political system is even less democratic and more plutocratic.
Yes Peter, you are right to a point.
I have thought about this. But I do not like the way that information is kept from the Chinese people. I often joke to close Chinese associates that we, in the west, often know more about what is going on in China than the Chinese people do. The way that the Chinese Government controls the thinking of the Chinese people makes me angry. Then there is the cultural aspect. Asians will often (not always) accept the dictates of authority figures in ways that we will not and that we do not understand. There is this cultural thing.
I also know that we in the west can be ‘kept in the dark’ when the government really wants to do that.
These are terribly difficult issues to come to terms with. There is no simple answer. I only wish that there was. Human nature is complex and almost impossible to manage.
Useless Crikey bot has embargoed my lengthy reply (largely agreeing with you). I’ll try camouflaging a few words and see whether that works.
Is this the original –
‘Peter Schulz 16 minutes ago Awaiting for approval Reply to Robert REYNOLDS’ ?
I cannot see what the trigger word/phrase was.
As to why I can see it with the infamous 3 ILLITERATE ORANGE WORDS is a mystery
‘Simpletons’ in the second last paragraph of the revised version below was originally a term closer to my thinking – something to do with male genitalia and heads. I momentarily forgot I was writing in a high-brow, genteel publication.
There seem to be some soft machines tending the madBot – your original with the ORANGE idiocy has now disappeared.
Given long experience with this site, I’d already copied it into Word and reckon that you are correct about the Richard Craniums.
LOL, that’s a cleverer synonym.
So you could see the original uncensored version in spite of the orange words? How interesting.
It is strange and happens are couple of times each week, oten posts that are DISAPPEARED entirely, never to be posted.
Occasionally there will have the obvious trigger words/concept but,mostly not.
I hesitate to suggest that it is arbitrary – more likely complex ideas are inherently verboten to the poor soft machines tied to the Wheel.
I believe it’s called ‘artificial intelligence’.
Quite distinct from the natural ignorance which appears to be the norm.
I’ll try again.
Agree Robert. There are several aspects to ‘democracy’, the main ones off the top of my head being the fairness of the voting system, whose interests the elected ‘representatives’ actually represent, who actually makes the key decisions, and liberal freedoms (habeas corpus, separation of powers, freedom of expression, freedom to dissent and embarrass the government, freedom from surveillance, etc). While China certainly scores lower than us on some of these (not much lower, sometimes), they score better than us on others.
And yes, Asian societies tend more towards the communal end of the social ideology spectrum (more prepared to sacrifice individual freedom for the common good) whereas Anglo societies tend more towards the individual liberty end (at least since Margaret Thatcher’s ‘there is no such thing as society’). Reading some of the comments and placards from the simpletons in the current ‘Freedom’ rallies in Australia and in Clive Palmer’s ads, I’m not sure we’ve currently got the right balance. Interestingly, my father grew up in a poor rural community on the outskirts of Brisbane during the depression era 1930’s, and when I asked him before he died some deep and meaningful questions about his life, I was struck by the number of times the words ‘help’, ‘helped’, and ‘helping’ cropped up. He was clearly from a different Australia to the self-centred libertarian one we have now.
As for keeping people in ignorance, I have some very dear Liberal-voting friends who are completely disinterested in knowing what’s happening in Australian politics and are quite comfortable in their self-imposed ignorance because it avoids disturbing their unthinking loyalty to the Liberal cause.
The obverse being “…if the government wants
to stopDO something harmful, it can.”.Just like here.
Two cheers for democracy…
I expected better of Maye than – “…stymie the 2010 Andrew Wilkie deal with Julia Gillard to curb gambling harm on poker machines through a mandatory pre-commitment scheme…”.
This was NOT Wilkie’s scheme – he and Tim Costello had long advocated $1 bet limit – all the fun of watching the mesmerising wheels go around, lights twinkling and bells ring but without the catastrophic family destroying bankruptcy.
It was Gillar’d betrayal of the deal, dumping an excellent, bi-partisan Speaker to install Slipper so that she could over-ride Wilkie in the Reps. so that she could pretend to advocate for the gambling card, knowing full well that the “It’s UNAUSTRALIAN!” advertising was already in the can, with full support of Labor clubs.
Talk about planning to fail.