This weekend’s conference is a critical moment for New South Wales Labor. It’s a chance for elected officials and members to finally choose to act on the scourge of poker machine harm. And we must.
The Scale of the Problem
There are almost 90,000 poker machines in NSW, the largest number per capita of any jurisdiction on Earth. State-wide losses reached $9.3bn last year and are on track to break the $10bn ceiling this year. The vast majority of people in NSW who seek assistance for gambling addiction report that it’s the pokies that have trapped them. Worse still, the losses and the harm are highly concentrated in working-class communities and among low-income families. For example, in the Fairfield and Canterbury-Bankstown municipalities, losses for each community will soon top $1bn annually.
Political Inaction and the Lobby
For too long, NSW politics has treated the pokies as a problem that everyone acknowledges but nobody is prepared to solve. The extraordinary political power of the poker machine lobby has prevented governments from acting. For decades, lobbyists have perfected the politics of intimidation, using scare tactics and threats to make politicians believe it is safer to accept the harm than to take up the political fight. Every reform proposal is met with warnings that clubs and pubs will close, jobs will disappear, and sports clubs will fold. This playbook, borrowed from the National Rifle Association, is designed to con the public and coerce politicians into staying quiet.
The Growing Call for Change
The people of NSW have had a gutful of politicians failing to act. Churches, unions, councils, and charities are part of a growing chorus calling for change. Reducing the number of machines, turning them off for longer periods, and forcing venues to uphold harm-reduction requirements can make a difference while clubs and pubs are assisted to transition to a better business model.
A Test of Courage
The question for NSW Labor is not whether poker machines cause harm. The question is whether we still have the courage to confront powerful interests when working people are paying the price. That has always been Labor’s most noble tradition. It should be again today.
