Pollies play the gambling card

The biggest winners in our historically close election may yet be problem gamblers. Tasmanian independent Andrew Wilkie is pushing for the introduction of a $1 maximum bet on poker machines. The cap was recommended by the Productivity Commission in June.Anti-pokies Senator Nick Xenophon and the Reverend Tim Costello point out that with a $1 limit per spin, you could still lose $120 per hour, which is surely enough "entertainment" for all but the problem gambler.I'd go further and wager that you could still easily lose more than $2 per minute. The commission itself concluded that if you're not lucky enough to win the free games feature, "it is easily possible to play 19 button pushes per minute". As things stand in NSW, you can lose $10 with every one of those pushes. Every few seconds.There is a cosmic disconnect between, on the one hand, the widely held view that there are too many pokies in NSW and they have a devastating effect on addicts' families, and the clubs' view that problem gamblers are a tiny fraction of the population and the positives from gambling are unfairly ignored. In their response to the commission's draft report, these included support for the economy, jobs, infrastructure and "the social good".If you go out and ask people what they think about pokies, more people will talk about the damage they wreak than the social good they foster. That's not to say people don't love their clubs. That's not to say clubs don't do a world of good for society through services, junior sport development, community sponsorship, supporting volunteers and myriad other good deeds. It's just to say that the very notion of linking the pokies to the social good is jarring.There are two other points that are often brought to the discussion of pokies by the clubs.Firstly, as Clubs NSW chief executive officer Anthony Ball told the Mercury, poker machines are "a legitimate form of recreation". That's true. Clubs NSW is conducting a legal business and it makes perfect business sense for clubs to protect their income from poker machines as vigorously as they possibly can.Mr Ball went on to compare pokies to other forms of recreation that people choose to spend their hard-earned on, like iPods, pets and other forms of enjoyment. There's that disconnect again.The greater community knows that's nonsense. There aren't many iPod addicts blowing the family grocery money every fortnight.Secondly, clubs say, if problem gamblers didn't come to a supervised gambling environment like the pokies room at their local club, they would probably be gambling online, at home, unsupervised and on unregulated sites. No doubt, internet gambling is a huge problem that is only going to get worse. But is that really an argument to do nothing about society's pokies problem? The Productivity Commission report found that problem gamblers are particularly vulnerable to poker machines, at an estimated social cost of $4.7 billion a year.Yes, as the clubs point out, poker machines are but one form of legalised gambling in Australia. But, again, go out on the street and ask people what form of gambling they see as the biggest problem in their community.It is actually in keeping with the clubs' image as champions of the community and responsible members of society to support measures that will reduce problem gambling, such as a $1 maximum bet.Now, that would be a real contribution to the social good.Chris Dyson is the Illawarra Mercury's chief of staff.