2018-10-04
Queensland Greens Senator and spokesperson for gambling, Larissa Waters, said reports today that Queenslanders lost on average, a record-breaking $7 million a day in August 2018, shows the urgent need to ban political donations by the gambling industry.
“While the greedy gambling industry sits in the back pocket of the major political parties there will never be any real action to keep the community safe from predatory pokies,” Senator Waters said.
“There must be urgent action to curb these enormous losses and harm caused by poker machines.
“People who have a gambling problem account for about 40% of all pokies losses. What this means is those who can least afford it are losing the most.
“The Greens have been pushing for maximum $1 bets, $20 machine load-up limits and $500 jackpot limits – as recommended by the Productivity Commission – and a number of other reform measures that would help stem these staggering losses.
“But we won’t get any real reform on predatory gambling until the powerful pokies lobby gets out of the back pocket of the old political parties.”
“That’s why the Greens have had legislation before the Parliament since 2010 to ban donations from the gambling lobby.
“Ending dirty donations to political parties is needed more than ever, with analysis from the Alliance for Gambling Reform showingthat gambling industry entities donated more than $1.5million to the major parties in 2016-17 alone.”
Greens’ plans for poker machine reform: https://greens.org.au/sites/default/files/2018-06/20160627_Dollar%20Bets%20for%20Pokies.pdf