Thread by @SandmanGrant

Why did the Bishops and Dean cross the road?

To urge Macquarie Street MPs to put #AirbagsOnPokies!

#GamblingReform #NSWPol
@MStead11 @GaryKoo @SydAnglicans @AnglicareSydney

Jesus cared for the weak and heavy laden, and few burdens weigh so heavily as the harm caused by gambling - especially on the poker machines engineered to suck you in.

So with the unanimous backing of the Anglican Synod reps of 270 parishes, we support the @WesleyMission Gambling Reform NSW election platform.

We’re calling for a universal cashless gaming card, enabling self-exclusion and bet limits across all venues: to reduce gambling harm; also to minimise the washing of criminal proceeds via poker machines.

Norway has done it - and the research shows losses reduced and calls to help-lines fell - and Tasmania’s Parliament is doing it on a bipartisan basis. Why not NSW?

We’re also calling on the Parliament to power down poker machines before midnight. Research shows it’s people at high risk of gambling harm who are disproportionately playing after that time.

Money not spent on the pokies does not disappear from the economy but is spent more productively, on family needs, on other hospitality & entertainment, not to mention meeting debts that are due!

The NSW tax take on pubs and clubs pokie profits will rise over $2 billion next year making our state government the biggest gambling addict in the nation. Let’s see @ChrisMinnsMP & @NSWNationals join @Dom_Perrottet, @AlexGreenwich,@GreensJamieP to put #AirbagsOnPokies now!

Pleased to be hosted in NSW Parliament House for the platform launch - “Put Pokies in their Place” by @greencate @helendalton22 “The momentum is now”!

This is a rural and regional issue too. @helendalton22 reminds us how Victorians used to flood across the Murray - her electorate - to NSW for our pokies to show what high stakes are in play. NSW still has the highest rates of pokie presence and pokies losses.

At the Bear Pit Public Speaking Comp… If I was NSW Premier for a Day, 11 y.o. Sophia: “I would ban all pokies.” She says that what isn’t random is the amount of money that comes back. Over time it’s always less than you put in.

Sophia explains: The poker machines are designed to addict you. You might get lucky at first but eventually you’ll lose. And some risk bankruptcy, homelessness, dispossession…
Australians lose $25B. And $6.5B of it is on the pokies in NSW!

The supervisor of @wesleymission gambling counsellors says we hear the stories of those who lose a home or engage in fraud, but addicted pensioners, who can stay at machines all night, cause him greatest anguish. Every person harmed by gambling on average impacts ten others.

We’re in the Jubilee Room at NSW Parliament House and @CameronStu reminds us that in the Bible ‘jubilee’ meant ‘release from debt’; release from the weight that may not be otherwise be able to be repaid.

Stu says: The call in the election platform is proportionate and possible and non-partisan.

1. Universal cashless gambling with built in harm reduction measures.

2. Power down poker machines after midnight.

3. Fund an independent state-wide self-exclusion register.

4. Let local communities have a say!

5. Publish venue pokie-use data for greater transparency in NSW.

We hear the heartbreaking stories every week. It impacts every corner of the community - white collar and blue, city and rural, professional and pensioner, Anglican and atheist - and we know the solutions. And @CameronStu and so are not giving up.

@threadreaderapp please unroll

One of our @SydAnglicans Synod reps quoted their friend's awful reality... “Sorry, I can’t pay my rent this week”.

My informant, @IanNicholls10, said the sad 'hope' going with it was: I have to win it on the pokies!

😢😢😢

#AirbagsOnPokies

For the record, here are the organisations that stood with @wesleymission as they launched the NSW Gambling Reform Election Campaign this morning. More will join!