Yes, problem gamblers are, in their own way, a many and varied type.
Yes, odds at the ground, odds on the telly, online and mobile gambling and sugar-coated gaming targeted at children are problems.
Yes, all those things have a role to play in creating problem gamblers and exacerbating their problems.
But pokies are the real problem. When “problem gambling” first became an issue it wasn’t the TAB, or SportsBet, or Des the shady SP who keeps his books outside the men’s at Flemington, who were up in arms. It was the Casino owners (who own thousands of poker machines), it was NRL & AFL clubs (ditto), the fact is that blackjack tables and taking the quinella require certain skills. Pulling a handle and listening to ding-y metallic noises does not. So when it comes to “problem gambling” it seems logical to deal with devices that make gambling both easy and lucrative for the people who are doing the ripping off.
But that’s too hard. It’s too hard to reveal the festering, evil dishonesty that underlies opposition to one-dollar maximum bets and pre-commitment limits. I’ve written about the dishonesty of that argument before.
So Gillard does the easy thing, she trials pre-commitment in the ACT.
Who wants to invest in a casino in Queanbeyan?