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AUGUST NEWSLETTER
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13/082022
Carol Bennett
Chief Executive Officer
News from our CEO
It’s been a busy time here at the Alliance with more public attention focussed on gambling and its harms than ever before. A huge thank you to you for your continued support!
The Alliance would like to share a few of the things we’ve been up to. Here’s a quick whip around of what’s been happening. As always, we appreciate your feedback and insights and if you would like to support our work you can do so here
Out and About
On Tuesday, June 14, we hosted a successful fundraising event, “An evening with Tim Costello”. The evening focused on what we can do to stamp out sports gambling ads, and shared powerful stories of the lived experience of gambling harm.
We also attended the National Australian Local Government Association conference in Canberra, working with many of our Leadership Councils to denounce gambling harm and work towards offering alternative late-night options.
The event was attended by Carol Bennett (CEO), Kasuni Mendis (Councils Gambling Harm Support Officer) and Board member Susan Rennie.
In other local government news, we are working closely with Kingston City Council, in an effort to close a planning loophole enabling close proximity of gambling venues and supermarkets.
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Alliance staff with representatives from Kingston City Council at the ALGA conference
Campaign Updates
We’ve been keeping abreast of the Royal Commissions into Crown and Star Casinos.
We’ve welcomed the Australian Communications and Media’s (ACMA’s) actions towards a National Self Exclusion Register and Hawthorn Football Club’s divestment form Poker machines.
We’ve supported the Victorian Gaming Minister’s new Gambling harm minimisation measures,
We supported the Mparntwe/Alice Springs community in its campaign to stop new poker machines in their community with a petition and call for submissions.
We eagerly await the results of the NSW government’s White Paper on gambling harm minimisation
Latest Blogs
Read our latest blogs
Voices for Gambling Reform -
"A journey from harm to empowerment"
In June, Anna Bardsley, Paul Fung and Carolyn Crawford presented A journey from harm to empowerment at the 2022 NZ International Gambling Conference.
They spoke about their work within Voices for Gambling Reform, a key program of AGR that supports and empowers people impacted by gambling harm to be powerful advocates for change.
Too often “consumers” are engaged in ways that are shallow and disrespectful of their knowledge and expertise, instead of being given meaningful decision-making power and being included in organisational power structures.
The workshop invited participants to do better in this area.
Submissions
This month, we provided submissions to the NSW Crime Commission clubs and pubs inquiry into money laundering, input to the Vic Department of Justice for the Royal Commission legislation and the ACT government on lower bets and credit limits inquiry.
We are currently working on two major casino inquiry submissions in both Queensland and South Australia. We will engage our Voices for Gambling Reform group to bring lived experience to the fore.
Our
Social Media
Here are some of our most popoular stories on social media.
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Strong links between gambling and suicide need to be considered in reform
20 September 2023
New research undertaken by Federation University in collaboration with the Coroners Court of Victoria, examined the Victorian Suicide Register which revealed at least 184 suicides were directly related to gambling. There were another 17 gambling-attributed suicides by "affected others" such as family members.
Carol Bennett on Gold Coast Breakfast
14 September 2023
Alliance CEO Carol Bennett comments on the legislation to be introduced by the Anthony Albanese Labor Government to Parliament today which include a ban on credit card payments and fines for companies who don’t enforce it. While these reforms are significant, we would like to see them include lotteries ABC Gold Coast
Advocates welcome gambling credit ban, but question lotto exemption
13 September 2023
Carol Bennett, CEO of the Alliance for Gambling Reform, told The New Daily that Australians are the biggest online gamblers in the world.
“This is great legislation in the sense it addresses the need for a ban on credit, digital wallets and digital currencies,” she said.
“These are things that mean people are gambling with money they simply don’t have to lose.”
New analysis on link between gambling and suicide
12 September 2023
New research has shed light on the link between gambling and suicide, after analysis of Coroner's Court cases in Victoria.
Advocates for gambling reform say it supports anecdotal evidence of what they're seeing on the ground, and they're calling for urgent action from state and federal governments.
Pokies reforms: Clubs push for review of ‘dated’ self-exclusion programs
11 September 2023
Alliance for Gambling Reform chief executive Carol Bennett said her organisation would welcome improvements.
She said a mishmash of different jurisdictions and gambling companies running their own programs had led to huge failures.
“There is a mismatch between the technology and some of these very outdated schemes that don’t really do what they were intended to do or have found to be in breach of the very purpose they were set up,” Bennett said.
“It really is an area that is very important to people who are harmed by gambling ... They need to feel confident in the system and, at the moment, it’s hard to say that.”
You can also see all the latest media featuring the Alliance for Gamlbing Reform via our website.
You can also view our latest Media Releases.
Independent Reviews into casinos operating in Queensland and South Australia are now underway. AGR has worked to achieve input to NSW, WA and Victorian Inquiries to date.
Your financial support will enable us to provide timely and high quality advice and advocacy, informed by expert evidence-based harm reduction policy recommendations and the input of people with lived-experience of gambling harm.
Alliance for Gambling Reform is proud to partner with Gathered Here to offer you the opportunity to write your Will for free (plus free & unlimited updates of your Will for life).
If you don't have a legal will, you can get a free, simple online will through Gathered Here.
Bequests can also be made to the Alliance for Gambling Reform to continue our vital work.