Advent prepares us for Christmas by calling us to restrain our appetites for material things and to focus our minds and hearts on the spiritual dimension of life: the entry into history of a Saviour. Such restraint is always difficult because there are so many false idols about. In Geelong today, one such idol is excessive gambling, particularly on the ‘pokies’. Since the introduction of ‘pokies’ in Victoria, members of the Geelong Catholic Social Justice Committee (GCSJC), and our associates, report a dramatic rise in cases of local families seeking help from St Vincent De Paul because a parent has gambled away their assets. Indeed, so serious have gambling-related problems become in Geelong that our Committee has made an official submission to the Productivity Commission’s Inquiry into Gambling.

Our submission condemns the Victorian Government’s elevation of gambling from the status of a recreational activity to that of a major industry. Gambling is by nature a risk-taking activity. When it was only a recreational activity – a weekend bet on the horses or game of chance at a fundraiser – the recreational purpose built into the activity contains certain restraints making it socially beneficial. By making it a major industry, however, the Government has made two serious errors. Firstly, it has licensed an industry whose interest lies in persuading patrons to shed such restraints: advertising suggesting everyone is a winner; the suppression of counter advertising and even of data from government-funded counselling agencies; provision of ‘freebies’ like milk and bread to keep gamblers in venues; attempting to shield extensions to ‘pokies’ hours from objections; exposing our poorest suburbs to deliberate targeting by Tabcorp (as admitted to the Productivity Commission).

Secondly, government dependence on gambling revenues has compromised its ability to fulfil its duty of regulating that industry for the common good. The government now gets around 14% of all its taxes from gaming and the amount of gaming has increased every week since ‘pokies’ were legalised. Being a hazardous industry, the government has a duty to prevent its unrestrained promotion, but government’s gambling dependence drives it to support such promotion.

The government pretends that excessive gambling is restricted to an addicted minority, and so there is no responsibility for government to regulate gambling to curb harmful effects. This is like saying all drink drivers are alcoholics, and so government has no responsibility to curb the harmful effects of excessive drinking. As our Advent readings remind us, both excessive gambling and excessive drinking require individual restraint, but governments must serve the common good by banning in these industries promotions that deny their hazards.

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