Claims Of Benefits To Community By Poker Gaming Machines Don’t Add Up
Back when government run lotteries were first making their inroads in Ontario, Canada, the argument used to support the legalization was that the money earned from the lotteries would go to hospitals and schools. Some thirty years later the Ontario Lotteries and Gaming Commission (OLG) pulls in millions upon millions of dollars and yet we have longer line-ups in hospital waiting rooms, areas where people don’t even have family doctors; because there aren’t any to be found, and our education system is going downhill.
So it didn’t really surprise me when I came across this study that was done in Australia where its findings totally contradict the claims by government that communities are benefiting from legalized poker machines.
The study was lead by Dr. Charles Livingstone of the School of Public Health and Preventative Medicine at Monash University, where the researchers looked into the claims of community benefit versus poker machine expenditures. The study analyzed data from New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, and the Australian Capital Territory during a period of 2010 to 2011.
In New South Wales alone poker machine players lost almost $5 billion but the clubs in New South Wales where the money was lost only contributed $63.5 million back into the community. Victoria fared no better where gamblers lost $2.6 billion but the communities only saw $62.8 million find its way back.
Dr. Livingstone said the claims of charitable and community contributions by clubs merely deflected attention from the harm caused by poker machines.
”It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that poker machine community benefit claims are principally intended as a device to legitimate poker machine operations,” Dr. Livingstone said.
”There is no doubt that poker machines cause considerable harm. Claims of community benefits are arguably a smokescreen to enlist the support of those who benefit from them – local sporting clubs and charities.
via Phys.Org
Comments
About the Author
Steven Hodson Steven has been around the tech world long enough to see most of the stuff we think of cool happen before which leads to a certain bit of cynicism that has contributed to him being known as the cranky old fart of the Internet. Besides sharing some of the goodness that he finds with you here at 42x you can also find him curating some digital goodness at Winextra (tech type stuff) and Rotten Gumdrops (for your daily dose of WTF).
Related Posts
Being Stalked By A Great White Shark [Video] →
A Real Life First Person Shooter – Target … Real Zombies [Video] →
Extremely Rare Egyptian Book Of The Dead Fragments Discovered In Australia →
