The chief executive officer of the New South Wales’ Returned and Services League (RSL), Margot Smith, has urged members and sub-branches of the organisation to oppose the latest gambling reforms. She has accused NSW’s senior leadership of doing nothing to protect its interests, and called for the organisation’s supporters to resist the cashless gaming card unveiled by the state Government and to help spread a more balanced view of gambling in the state.
Ms Smith explained that recent media scrutiny and political motion against gambling meant that the industry needed to enhance its voice where it counted. She further noted that a quick Google search would show that gambling could be historically found back in time and had been available for more than 4,322 years because people all over the world had been enjoying the activity of placing different types of bets through the ages as a form of entertainment.
The NSW RSL chief executive officer claims that the implementation of a cashless gambling card could lead to severe negative consequences, which is why such an action should be put off until the competent authorities could offer a digital solution, including a trial of digital wallets to be conducted. According to Ms Smith, the measure would offer a rushed solution to a matter that had remained unsolved for more than half a decade.
Margot Smith further explained that the state of New South Wales needed solutions to help gambling addicts deal with their compulsive habits and the potential negative consequences, as well as keep money launderers out of local pubs and clubs. Unfortunately, she does not believe that the proposed cashless cards would have the desired outcome.
NSW Premier Proposes Implementation of Cashless Gambling Harm to Protect State’s Problem Gamblers
As Casino Guardian previously reported, in November 2022, the Premier of New South Wales, Dominic Perrottet, unveiled plans for the implementation of a cashless gaming card, claiming the state had been taking advantage of local people’s misery for quite some time.
At the time, the New South Wales Crime Commission recommended the implementation of a so-called cashless gaming card, saying that it would help the authorities address the deteriorating money-laundering issues that have seen billions of dollars in dirty money being washed through gambling in local clubs and pubs on an annual basis.
The president of the Hawthorn RSL sub-branch in Victoria, which does not offer poker machines, Eamon Hale, shared his disappointment with Ms Smith’s commentary on the matter. According to him, RSL and its branches across the country did a pretty decent job for veterans, but they also had to start doing their job in a more morally righteous way. Mr Hale is not against gambling but warned that the association that has been building between gambling and RSL over the last few years was getting too strong and was actually hurting veterans.
According to official reports, gambling accounted for more than AU$163 million for the RSL branches across Victoria over the last financial year. In its own statements to the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission (VGCCC), the RSL revealed that its donations to prevent gambling-related harm were only worth AU$8.4 million. That has been exactly why the organisation has faced criticism from various campaigners, saying that it had clearly not received the message from a few reasonable reviews of the market, particularly from the NSW Crime Commission.
- Author
Daniel Williams
