A Sydney Anglican minister plans to be a Christian voice at a community forum on gambling today.
St Barnabas’, Fairfield assistant minister Steve Frederick has been invited to speak at today’s South West Sydney Problem Gambling Summit.
“This is a fantastic opportunity to offer a Christian voice on an issue of such importance for the south west of Sydney,” Mr Frederick says.
Mr Frederick was invited to speak at the summit after writing an email of encouragement to a member of Fairfield Council who came under fire from the rest of the council for an opinion piece he’d written in the local paper.
“In the article Councillor Thang Ngo expressed concern about the disproportionately high number of pokies in Fairfield and the staggeringly high proportion of disposable income that residents of the area spend on them,” Mr Frederick says.
Good for him. One of the biggest object lessons of my life was when as a child I became aware of the way my grandfather gambled everything away by backing losers at the racetrack. Gambling is not about getting rich quick but about becoming poor fast.
Being from Mississippi, I’ve seen that legalized gambling is not always the great economic savior it’s often claimed to be.
One situation that makes me sick is the story my dad told me about a casino in Natchez (I think) when he went there for lunch. It was the day that people got their social security and other govt. benefit checks, and the casino was offering to cash the checks and give them a spin on a wheel to win some prizes, including doubling the amount of money. The reasoning was that a handful of cash in a casino could be an almost irresistable temptation for some. These of course would be the people least able to afford to gamble.
This largely confirmed my agreement with my dad’s opinion: “Why go to a casino when I can flush money down the toilet at home?”
#2 Kevin Montgomery
California is on the fast track of becoming much like what you have in Mississippi. The people who are pushing the gambling her in Califonia are the Indian reservations. That would be a thread all on its own trust me! What was suppose to stay on their land to give them revenue has creeped down inrto cities and towns due to the revenue that they have accumulated from their casinos hat has allowed them to purchase land outside of their “reservations” and then begin to promote an new casino within city limits by promising to give a percentage to schools and road developments, etc… IMHO it is a very bad idea and has caused more problems than it has solved. The formula is a bad mix!
Now, I will say that the Mississippi Band of Choctaws has been pretty successful, but the casinos have been only a part of a larger economic diversification. Now they’re even having to import other Native American workers.
ODC: You can bet your last buck that organized crime has their fingers in the till at these Indian casinos……even though the public isn’t aware of it. My wife and I have better things to do with our money…..such as home improvement and giving to the Church…..and especially to our Building Fund and the Diocsan Legal Defense Fund. We also donate to the ARDF (Anglican Relief and Development Fund).
In New York State, however, the Oneida Nation HAS done some great things for their people: Health care, schools, jobs and job training, etc. They have the Turning Stone Casino on their reservation in Oneida and Onondaga Counties, and they’re honestly-run. One of my high school classmates is the manager…..and she’s an Oneida.
Very recently in New Zealand the Salvation Army announced that they would no longer take money raised by gambling to fund any of their social work. This is quite a decision, because gambling revenue is one of the leading sources of funding available to charities here.
I must say when they made the decision I had two reactions
(a) surprise that they took gambling money in the first place — Presbyterians (who are generally regarded as much more liberal) have not done so for years
(b) a feeling of good on them — because I think the use of gambling “profits” going to charity to justify gambling as a good thing has gone on for much too long.
The full story is here:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4493843a11.html