The president of Returned and Services League (RSL) shared that he is supportive of the efforts made by the Government of New South Wales (NSW) and criticised the group operating RSL clubs for giving the brand a bad name.
In an interview for Radio National Breakfast, Greg Melick shared that he personally supports the plans unveiled by the Government of Premier Dominic Perrottet to implement so-called cashless gaming cards, no matter that Services Clubs Association and Clubs NSW and RSL have started a campaign against the measures. According to him, the proposed piece of legislation is sensible and necessary. Mr Melick explained that he only recently became aware of the association opposed the Government’s cashless gaming card but remains optimistic that his view would be supported by the organisation’s members.
RSL Australia is a registered non-profit organisation aimed at supporting veterans, while the retail clubs across the country are being operated by the RSL and Services Clubs Association. Although the two groups have a memorandum of understanding, they are separated by the legislation of New South Wales.
As Casino Guardian recently reported, this has not been the first time when RSL Australia and the RSL and Services Clubs Association have had some disagreements on various issues in the past. They have even stood against one another in several court battles.
Pokies Facilitate Money Laundering and Cause Gambling Harm, RSL President Says
The president of RSL has warned that he may split his organisation with the Services Clubs Association over the latter’s anti-gambling reform stance, saying that he had no control over the “unfortunate publicity” of the matter. On the other hand, he was unable to force the Association to stick to certain ethical practices or guidelines but he could only take some measures in order to make them stop using the RSL name in case the two parties were unable to reach an appropriate arrangement.
Mr Melick confirmed that controversial poker machines, also known as pokies, facilitated money laundering and caused gambling-related harm but, unfortunately, there were no statistics available on the actual impact of gambling on returned veterans.
As previously reported, the Government of Premier Dominic Perrottet is willing to prevent local gamblers from limitless cash while playing at any of the 90,000 electronic gambling terminals across the state of NSW. This is exactly why the Government has unveiled plans to force local gamblers to upload money onto a special gaming card in an effort to reduce gambling-related harm.
The leader of Unions NSW, Mark Morey, has also confirmed that his organisation supported the Perrottet Government – a move that caused a disagreement with Labour leader Chris Minns only months out from the election. According to Mr Minns, local lawmakers should not move straight to mandatory cashless gaming and shared his concern about the potentially large number of job losses.
He further highlighted the fact that poker machines do not accept credit cards but cash because the developers wanted to make sure punters get a visual representation of the actual amount of money spent on the machines. In his opinion, the implementation of cashless gambling cards could lead to even larger gaming losses, even though he could not provide evidence that it will necessarily do so.
- Author
Olivia Cole
