Gambling Guru's GuruBlog to take indefinite hiatus from the web

Over the past four months or so, GuruBlog has made a small but I believe valuable contribution to making people in Victoria, Australia and around the world aware of a range of issues in relation to gambling, and the potential harm that can be caused by it.

I have tried to focus on issues that impact the community, especially those in my own Southern Metropolitan Region of Melbourne, with the aim of educating and promoting awareness of a range of gambling issues.

Many posts have been confronting and thought-provoking to say the least, however I have tried to take an emotive approach in order to generate interest and critical thinking about gambling issues - a problem that while affecting a large portion of our community is not considered by many to be a significant health issue.

Many may not have agreed with everything written here but in terms of generating debate the blog has been successful. Before this blog started in August 2004, the Gambler's Help Southern website would receive about 100 unique visitors (repeat visitors count as 1 regardless of the number of times they visit) and about 300 total visits. In the month just past we had 927 unique visitors down from 970 unique visitors in November. In December we also past 2000 total visits for the month.

Whilst many articles have focused on our situation here in Victoria, and the majority of our visitors are from Australia we have had many visitors from around the world including the US, Canada, Ukraine, New Zealand, Singapore, Netherlands, Japan, Turkey, Indonesia, France, Mexico, Belgium, UK, Italy, Poland, Norway, Hong Kong, Colombia, India, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Israel, China, Argentina, Czech Republic, Taiwan, Malaysia, Greece and Thailand.

Unfortunately due to the sensitivities of the material posted on this blog and the fact that I work for a government funded service, some may see that it is not appropriate for this blog to continue in this form. Personally I believe that the blog performed a community education role but this is not a view shared by all. This put significant pressure on the type of content presented and its form as well as whether the blog would continue to be effective. All in all these many unanswered questions have led me to decide that these resources would be better utilised in my other tasks as a community educator with Gambler's Help Southern.

I thank all my readers for their support and hope that you will continue to visit the Gambler's Help Website at www.ghsouthern.org.au where I hope to add relevant articles often.

Thank you to all those who have emailed me or left comments to posts - and those many readers out there that have enjoyed reading GuruBlog. I can continue to be contacted at guru@ghsouthern.org.au

Thanks again and remember - THINK OF WHAT YOU'RE REALLY GAMBLING WITH!

GG

New Gambling Council Announced - Usual and not so usual suspects

On Monday, a public holiday here in Victoria, the State Government announced the makeup of the Government's new Responsible Gambling Ministerial Advisory Council. The official press release is available here.

The members and their organisations are as follows:

INDUSTRY REPRESENTATIVES

John Bresnan - National Corporate Affairs Manager, Australian Leisure & Hospitality (ALH)
Leon Wiegard - President, Clubs Victoria
Brian Daley - State President, Victorian Branch of the Australian Labor Party (Currently in Government) and Secretary, Victorian Branch of the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union
Bill Horman - General Manager, Community Affairs, Crown Casino
Mohan Jesudason - Executive General Manager - Gaming, Tabcorp
Scott Clarebrough - General Manager - Commercial Operations, Tattersall's
Robert Nason - CEO, Racing Victoria
Vicki Flannery - Executive Director, Australian Gaming Council
Geoff Rankin - CEO, Australian Leisure & Hospitality (ALH)

COMMUNITY REPRESENTATIVES

Mike Hill - Chairman, Communities Against Pokies Problems
Andrew Rowe - Chief Executive, Victorian Local Governance Association
John Dalziel - Communications Director, The Salvation Army Australia Southern Territory, Salvation Army representative on the InterChurch Gambling Taskforce
Mark Zirnsak - Social Justice Officer, Uniting Church, Uniting Church Representative on the InterChurch Gambling Taskforce
Julie Smith - Research Fellow at Australian National University - National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health - author of "Gambling taxation — public equity in the gambling industry?"
Cath Smith - Chief Executive, Victorian Council of Social Service (VCOSS)
Phong Nguyen - Director, Springvale IndoChinese Mutual Assistance Association (SICMAA)
Alan Bliss - Victorian President, CPA Australia
Eddie Chapman - Executive Officer, Council of Gambler's Help Services

Its an interesting lineup. The recently taken-over ALH with two representatives is a surprise especially as they haven't been very vocal in the debate thus far. The AHA Victorian Branch is not represented even though they are responsible for the self-exclusion program. The contribution of Brian Daley will be interesting considering he is the president of the Victorian Labour Party.

On the community side, Alan Bliss is a notable inclusion. CPA Australia have only recently made a partnership with the State Government in regards to gambling (see here) and it is not clear what their contribution will be. Also the inclusion of Julie Smith has to be in relation to the research agenda that will need to be carried out considering this panel replaced the Gambling Research Panel.

The Age published an article on the panel here.

Of course the proof will be in the pudding, and we should wait to see how the panel proceeds before rushing to judgement.

GG

Merry Christmas to all

A very merry christmas and happy holidays to you all.

GG is taking a break over the next few days and will be back on the 29th of December before a break over New Year.

GG

Former Gaming Minister Richard Face gambles and loses

Richard Face, former minister for gaming in the New South Wales government may spend this christmas in jail after being found guilty of making false and misleading statements to the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption, commonly referred to as ICAC.

ICAC conducted an inquiry into Mr Face's conduct, and their report published in June this year (2004) found that Face had lied about using materials from his parliamentary office to setup a consultancy, that he would operate on his departure from the parliament in March 2003.

The report (available here) recommended that Face be prosecuted for his actions, and as the Sydney Morning Herald reports was found guilty and will be sentenced today.

The case revolves around a letter that Face sent to the inquiry denying the claims made against him in order to try and prevent the inquiry proceeding, however when it did proceed he later admitted using his office for his own personal advantage.

His laywer claimed that Face panicked and therefore should be treated leniently. The prosecutor asked for a jail term saying that since Face had 14 days to respond to the inquiry and had sought advice during this time, he should receive a jail sentence as Face was a public figure in a position of responsibility and an example should be made.

The NSW Opposition have also raised concern that the head and deputy head of the NSW Department of Gaming and Racing were also in attendance at court.

Among those in court were the head of the Department of Gaming and Racing, Ken Brown, and his deputy, Darrell Loewenthal. Mr Brown declined to comment about his attendance.
But the deputy Opposition leader, Barry O'Farrell, said it was "highly inappropriate" for the senior public servants to attend and asked for Face's successor as Gaming Minister, Grant McBride, to explain. The minister's spokesman would make no comment.
"Given that the Face-ICAC saga commenced because of the blurring of lines between public and private duty, the presence of the DG [director-general] and deputy DG of a government department at the proceedings suggest that the lessons have not been learnt," Mr O'Farrell said.

It is important that gaming regulation is seen as being independent and fair especially in an issue that faces so much scrutiny.
Some of these concerns are noted in this Crikey article from February 2003

How can the public have faith in the regulation of gaming when a minister behaves in this way seemingly with the support of the senior public servants reponsible for regulation of gaming?

Gambling can be a grubby business. Sometimes you can't wash it off your Face.

GG

UPDATE: Face was convicted, fined $2000 and placed on a good behaviour bond. Magistrate Pat O'Shane said jail was only required to protect the public and would not be necessary in this case. However she remarked that given his 30 years of public service it was a "substantial penalty" to have a conviction recorded against his name. More.