South-West Sydney Gambling Summit

Today I got to share a community perspective on the problem gambling in our wider Fairfield community. Below is the transcript of what I shared. Its kinda long: so if you are only a little bit interested, just glance over the red bolded bits.

Also check out this article on the Sydney Anglicans web page.

the address given on the day:
"As I was introduced, I’m one of the pastors of two churches in Fairfield. I’ve been involved with these local church communities for nearly 7 years now. I’ve also chaired an interdenominational board of Fairfield Churches, that funds a teacher to run the religious education curriculum for Fairfield and Prairiewood High-Schools.

The church community I serve is, ethnically speaking, a pretty close reflection of our wider community. We are primarily from vietnamese, Italian, Chinese and Assyrian backgrounds, with Anglos, Maltese, African and South-American communities also represented.

Today I’ve been asked to offer some reflections on problem gambling as a representative from within the community.

Any discussion of individual rights and personal freedoms often becomes most heated, when we fear those freedoms are about to be taken from us. This fear has been clearly expressed in the letters pages of Fairfield’s community papers in recent weeks. Many users of poker machines are convinced, that to even question the place of poker machines in our community is itself a threat to their personal freedoms… an infiringement on their personal liberties. However, I’m convinced that a community’s freedom is never more under threat than when the relationships that constitute that community are being undermined. In Sydney’s South West, problem gambling is undeniably one of the most clear and present threats to those families (and other relationships) that give shape to our community. However the damage may express itself statistically, problem gambling is tangibly changing the face of our community.


Some Community experiences of problem gambling:

For one man in his 20’s at my church, almost his entire social network is affected by the harmful use of Pokies. So much so, that he has had to leave many of those relationships behind, because the lure of gambling is just too strong within that network of friends. His friends pressured him constantly for loans, so that they could hide their gambling losses from wives or partners.

.............................

This week a dear friend of mine graciously shared with me the impact of growing up with a father who was captive to problem Gambling. He described having been left waiting in the car while his father gamled. He described how he remembers coming home to find his bike missing, not stolen by a stranger, but sold to fund his dads pokie addictions. And yet, for my friend, it was the lies his father told, in a feeble attempt to hide the chronic gambling problem, that continue to define his memory of his teenage years.

One person I know was asked by a Tradesman friend, to loan him the money to buy his work tools back from the pawn shop. The tradesman, having lost his entire week’s pay, had hocked his tools for cash. In an attempt to win back his pay check he had then lost all the loaned cash as well. With all his tools still in the pawn shop, he was facing the prospect of losing his job. This was a common practice in my mate’s circle of friends.

.............................

Just last night I was told of another family who lost far more than the weeks groceries on the pokies. The parents ran off leaving behind their pokie debts; leaving their business in Cabramatta without paying off the employees wages; leaving their kids to the care of their grandparents.

.............................

These stories are not isolated occurences. They are not simply the tragic extreeme cases. They are frequently repeated stories which illustrate how problem gambling is undermining those relationships which constitue our community. We are not speaking of unpredictable outcomes, of an otherwise harmless passtime. None of these people experienced similar hardship because of a loved ones compulsion to go fishing or watch footy.

I am certainly aware of the contribution many Clubs make to their local communities. Of how some profits from poker machines are being set aside to help problem gamblers. However, to imply that the harm that pokies cause to the community, is somehow offest by the good things their income can achieve for the community; it seems to me as perverse as a hungry man seeking to alleviate that hunger by gnawing on his own right arm. It may solve one problem - but only by creating another one somewhere else.

Whatever generosity Clubs may display with their earnings after the fact, it can not repair the damage done by pokies to those families and other relationships which make up our community. Every time a problem gambler lies to or decieves their family, friends and coleagues, it has an effect on the foundations of our community that is not easily reversed.

Having said all this, the way in which so many charities and community groups are forced to rely on the proceeds of gambling, is perhaps more a shameful reflection on us as a community, than on the clubs themselves. Could the fact that charities do rely so heavily on the generosity of Clubs, perhaps reflect our own unwillingness to take responsibility for the common good? Could it perhaps partly be a reflection of our communities unwillingness to take responsibility for the good of our neighbour? Certainly any solution to the current problem does not lie in the hands of Gaming Establisments alone. Perhaps if we as a community step up and take responsibility for our own community groups and charities, then they need not loose out financially from a reduction in the number and influence of poker machines in our community.

Where ever the solution may finally lie, by choosing to reduce the influence of poker machines in our community we are not undermining personal freedom. Rather we are simply choosing to redirect our personal freedom in the service of others… those who most need it."

Cheers,
Steve