PRESSURE GROWS FOR STATE BASED POKIES REFORM

The Tasmanian Greens today reiterated their pledge to work towards ridding Tasmania of poker machines in light of the decision by Clubs ACT to further delay a mandatory pre-commitment trial until after the Federal Election.

Greens Gaming spokesperson Kim Booth MP said the decision added to the already strong case for Tasmania to go it alone on poker machine reform.

“Ideally we would like to see Tasmania transition completely out of pokies through both pre-commitment technology and also the introduction of maximum loss rates per hour,” said Mr Booth.

“The Greens will be bringing on our $1 bet limit bill for debate in Parliament later this year and we hope that there is sufficient community pressure to force Labor and the Liberals into supporting this reform.”

“The Greens want to set the maximum possible loss from a poker machine at $120 per hour, as opposed to the shocking system we currently have where a victim can blow as much as $1200 in an hour.”

“If this happens, Tasmania will become the first state to put people before pokies and protect those affected by the debilitating effects of pokies addiction.”

“At the end of the day, the cost of dealing with addictive gambling is far higher than the revenue that the government receives from it.”

“There’s never an excuse for a government or a corporation to exploit people who have an addictive personality, this commercial activity is taking food from the tables of underprivileged families”

“Poker machines are designed for the sole purpose of extracting money from people and especially people with addictive tendencies and it is completely unacceptable for a government or corporation to try and justify systematically fleecing the budgets of usually underprivileged households.”

“Labor are refusing to do anything for pokies victims, but the Greens will continue too stand up to this immoral operation that degrades families and communities.”

Kim Booth MP Greens Gaming Spokesperson Friday, 22 February 2013