The Chinese central government’s much talked about anti-corruption campaign may well be hurting the bottom line of Macau’s casinos, but they can be thankful they don’t have to deal with Australian senator Nick Xenophon.
A fervent anti-gambling campaigner, Xenophon is well known in Australia for his vocal opposition to pretty much anything related to gambling. He rightly points to “problem gambling” as a scourge that needs to be addressed but rather than tackle those issues directly he prefers to keep it simple and “ban them all!”
In recent years Xenophon has called for bans on everything from slot machines to sports betting to online gambling in all its forms and even gambling advertisements, so we were far from surprised to see him calling for a few more bans last week – this time on the sale of toys he believes encourage children to gamble such as toy poker sets and mini roulette wheels.
Exactly what would motivate any parent to buy their kids a mini roulette wheel is beyond us, but that’s a discussion for another day. At issue here is Xenophon’s crusade to ban everything that doesn’t agree with him. Never mind that less than one percent of the estimated 16 million Australians who participated in some form of gambling last year has a gambling problem – in Xenophon’s mind that other 99 percent don’t matter. Or perhaps he believes he is saving them from themselves? The ultimate moral crusader?
Xenophon loves referring to problem gambling statistics, such as the fact that one in six people who play slot machines regularly have a serious addiction. It’s a worrying figure and without doubt we need better ways of identifying and helping these people. Yet if one in six have a serious addiction, that means five in six don’t. Why should someone who enjoys putting $50 in the slots at the local pub on a Friday night or jumping online to wager $20 on his favorite football team be denied their simple pleasures? This sort of prohibition doesn’t sit well with us here at WGM.
Alcoholism is another major issue in many countries around the world, but suggest banning alcohol and you’d be laughed out of town. Rightly so, too. Why should I be refused the right to enjoy a few glasses of wine with dinner just because some bloke I’ve never met enjoys a few bottles instead?
While Xenophon isn’t going to achieve his ultimate goal of a nanny state whereby everything bar breathing is banned, his vocal campaigning — astutely designed to appeal to the moral sensibilities of the masses by waving the “problem gambling” flag – has certainly impeded much needed progress.
Every day, tens of thousands of Australians log onto online casinos or online poker sites despite the fact that Australia’s outdated laws make it illegal for any operator to offer these services to its citizens. Because of this, regulation of the online industry and the sites they use is non-existent.
The smart and obvious solution would be to update the law and regulate the industry so that Australians could safely play on a select number of recognized sites – the added bonus being more tax dollars for the government. But common sense often loses out in the fight against scare-mongering and so far politicians have been too scared of their image being tarnished by Xenophon’s inevitable “problem gambling” diatribe to take any such action.
“Ban, ban, ban,” he says.
Then again, perhaps he has a point. Rather than risk exposing kids to the evils of these toy poker sets, we should instead give each and every one of them a Nick Xenophon doll instead. If ever they are in doubt about something, all they have to do is press a button on his belly to find the answer … “Ban it!”
