Poker Addiction At Hand In Australia

In the ongoing effort to protect gambling addicts, Reverend Tim Costello, an anti gambling and poker machine campaigner has made a request to newly appointed Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.  The request is for the Prime Minister to enable commonwealth laws and introduce smart cards that would restrict how much a player could lose playing on poker machines.

The smart cards would have a preset amount and if that amount was met, the player would be unable to continue gambling until a specified date.  Mr. Costello also wants to see a ban put on having automated teller machines in the vicinity of poker machines.  For Prime Minister Rudd to keep his pre-election promise on the social implications of gambling, Australian Senator Nick Xenophon, Family First Leader Steve Fielding and Queensland’s National Senator Barnaby Joyce stand firm that he needs to act on this issue.

In almost “I’ll scratch your back, if you scratch mine”  fashion, three Senators have eluded that if the Prime Minister wanted them to back the Labor Legislative, then he will need to keep his pre-election promise.  These three minor party senators are Australian Senator Nick Xenophon, Family First Leader Steve Fielding and Queensland’s National Senator Barnaby Joyce.

The Prime Minister has quite the road ahead of him not only with the gaming industry and gambling addicts, but with the States Government’s so called addiction to the tax revenue from poker machines. Reportedly they receive yearly; an estimated $4 Billion dollars thus is where-in the problem lies.