In a letter to the Premier, Moderator the Rev. Simon Hansford has raised the church’s concerns about “the lack of meaningful reform” in the gambling industry and its impact on ordinary people and communities.
Mr Hansford said the government had missed an opportunity through its review of the Local Impact Assessment process to significantly reduce the estimated 95,000 pokies in NSW – 10 per cent of the world’s total – and their $6 billion a year in gambling losses.
The Moderator said the latest changes adopted by the government were “extremely disappointing” in actually providing for a net increase in machine numbers.
He urged the Premier and her government to “develop policies in the lead-up to the next state election that seriously embrace reform of the poker machine industry”.
Mr Hansford said such reforms should including a substantial reduction in pokie numbers and in the maximum bets allowed, and the end of a memorandum of understanding with hotels, clubs and associations which he said “safeguard[s] their interests at the expense of the interests and wellbeing of the people of NSW”.
