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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

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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People need protection from gaming excesses
24 March 2023
Joe Aston has laid bare the hypocrisy and delusion of the leaders of our rapidly growing gambling sector (“Sportsbet CEO Barni Evans is kidding himself”, Rear Window, March 23). It should surprise nobody that the CEO of a foreign-owned online gambling company is seen to put profits before the welfare of Australians.

Historic Sunshine Coast pub ditches pokies to create family friendly atmosphere
17 March 2023
Jessica Huddart bought a 114-year-old pub in June last year, and on Tuesday she ripped out the poker machines to send them to the rubbish tip.
Mapleton Public House in the Sunshine Coast hinterland had six gaming machines near the bar, but Ms Huddart wanted to improve the atmosphere.

We blew up the pokies, brought back the music and lifted turnover 700%
13 March 2023
Pokies aren’t just bad for health and bad for society, they are anti-business and anti-innovation. They make businesses lazy. They make governments lazy. They serve as a form of social subsidy stopping businesses from failing when they should. They act as a possibility levee, stopping ideas from thriving when they should.

Young men biggest at-risk group for gambling
12 March 2023
The Alliance for Gambling Reform says past efforts to ban gambling on credit have been clumsily framed and at least in part relied on the gambling industry to self-regulate. It notes that while credit cards can’t be used in licenced venues, casinos or TABs, there is no tracking of cash taken from credit accounts out of ATMs. And the restrictions on online gambling providers to offering credit to customers doesn’t extend to on-course bookmakers or telephone-based services.
“These loopholes and exceptions means people are falling into a pit of debt; our political leaders must move to protect people at risk of gambling harm. The industry will never do this because they are intent on boosting their fat profits,” alliance chief executive Carol Bennett said.

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.