Miss Eagle has received a comment to this post from DizzieLizzie. DL's points are so well made, in the view of Miss Eagle, that they deserve greater prominence than a comments link gives so they are posted here below. Miss Eagle would welcome further comment.
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Reality is that the one sure method of tracing and recording the spending of pokies players, that also would give poker machine consumers the protective tools to better regulate their own spending, is 'smart cards'.....and these have been consistently and conveniently rejected by govts and the gaming industry alike!
No wonder!
Using mandatory 'smart cards', pokies players could keep accurate spending records, thus could more readily quantify (and claim) their recorded 'losses' on poker machines. The government etc does NOT want that information to be so readily available!
Loss on pokies is already causing the govt. huge embarrassment.
The last measure it would willingly introduce is a card that empowers pokies consumers to limit their lossses...and that may also provide a spending receipt that incidentally is required in our consumer law! (Refer Fair Trading Act 1999 161a) So not only are pokies being operated illegally....our govt. is irresponsibly allowing this to occur, even though a 'smart card' would also stop self-excluded or under-aged players from playing.
For that benefit alone the card is worth introducing. It may also protect innocent families by providing a warning of over-spending, so that homes and businesses and family security are not lost!
Crown Casino is at huge fault for misleading the public about dangers of poker machines....and so is the 'puppet' government who is over-protecting the gaming industry, instead of acting to protect all citizens, who deserve greater 'duty of care'.
The pokies problem is NOT the 'too hard basket' at all Denis. It is easy to fix.
Ban poker machines OR make them safer to use! Simple!
The government AND the gaming industry MUST tell citizens the full truth...and that is that many more people are harmed by pokies than is reported. ALL citizens will be paying for the huge rise in public health and legal costs caused by pokies addiction for far longer than the government who now ignores effective reform will remain in power, at least!
Right now the govt. is desperately trying to hide the fact that the majority of people surveyed by local councils want pokies gone from the suburbs ....or banned completely!
So much news contains the 'good' that pokies supposedly do for communities....but we are not fully told of the business collapses, loss of employment, divorces, thefts, suicides, mental illness that has occurred. They are glossed over and our Victorin communities for instance, simply cannot handle losing billions each year to two businesses, Tatts and Tabcorp....while the govt. does not get enough of the pie to ever cover its losses. Taxpayers cover THAT!!
We are also led to believe that pokies addicts are a tiny group of irresponsible social misfits...they are 99% NOT. The machines are designed to addict. NORMAL people get addicted to these insidiously dangerous machines, that use subliminal, hypnotic and 'conditioning' techniques to put NORMAL people unknowingly into a trance. The machines are also 'rigged' to have purposeful 'near misses' etc...to promote over-spending.
It is too easy to say that individuals are to blame if they lose control on poker machines. As humans we have been seduced and exploited by these machines, that purposely hook in to our normal hard-wiring...to addle our brains....by design!If we allow dangerous products into our communities...WE as a WHOLE population are to blame!! Would we allow a car with no brakes to be on our roads? Most likely we would not...Perhaps we may though if we misguidedly believed that by doing so, we may be gaining from another's loss! Hence our failing and irresponsible govt. allows the myth to continue...that pokies addicts are in a minority....that individuals are to blame here...and our courts STILL blame the human victims...those who were told that pokies would be FUN!!
Pokies addicts did not expect to be harmed by a recreation that was presented as being harmless for all but 1-2%!! Being normal people they did not think that they were in such a 'misfit' category....prior to their addictions taking hold...waking up too late to make up for their debilitating loss!
Our courts should be blaming the true criminals...the government, the rapacious gaming industry and those who KNEW full well the real dangers of these machines BEFORE they were released on an unsuspecting population.
We were told that poker machines would save our economy. What rot!!Now we have ALL seen the real tragedy and cost of poker machines....and people who allow these defective products to remain are just as greedy and culpable as the government who is now hooked on them...OR the gaming industry who bleeds us dry!!
So when our communities are financially destroyed....who will we blame then? Just 1-2% of 'irresponsible' people?? C'mon.
Wake up Australians!! This is OUR problem!!
Look at Western Australia...the only Australian state who resisted the lure of these poker machines. NOW it is booming! That is NOT just due to mining! It also results from keeping billions of dollars that eastern states lose...away from the gaming industry!!....to be placed in the hands of greengrocers, butchers, hairdressers, dentists, clothing retailers, restauranteurs....and all of the other tradespeople who LOSE business over in the east.
And WHY would we want poker machines BANNED or gone from our neighbourhoods...if we felt their benefits rather than their pain???
