The debate for and against pokie reform is heating up across the country. More and more residents are voicing their opinions about the initiative, whether they support the reform or not. A recent article published in The Australian delves into public opinion about poker machine reform, citing sources that call Andrew Wilkie's proposed legislation ineffective.
The goal of pokie reform is to fight the growing rates of problem gambling across the country. However, pokie reform is a pre-commitment initiative that allows players to limit how much they plan to spend on poker machines. With players limiting their own spending, those that have addictions to gambling will still be able to wager however much they want.
As such, residents believe that pokie reform will do little to decrease problem gambling rates. The Australian interviewed several citizens to find out what they think about pokie reform. While the reasons behind the opposition of the scheme vary, they all point to the ineffectiveness of the initiative.
" It's a waste of time and money that could be better deployed on public education as we are doing with other mental illnesses such as depression", says Don Smith. He believes that gambling addiction is a deep-rooted issue that cannot be fixed simply by employing precommitment technology. Andrew Wilkie should take public opinion into consideration.
There are several other solutions out there to problem gambling, and they should certainly be explored.
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