Government Blamed For Gambling Machine Losses In Australia

Most of the time when a government is blamed for something related to gambling, it has to do with not correctly regulating the industry. In Australia, it is the complete opposite.

The Australian government is being blamed for a major increase in poker machine gambling at the end of 2008. The increase, according to the Victorian Opposition, is the fault of the Prime Minister.

"Now if John Brumby was serious about tackling problem gambling, you'd start to see these figures trend down," said Gaming Spokesman Michael O'Brien.

The figures O'Brien is speaking about came from the Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation. They contend that in the second half of 2008, there was a $46 million increase from the first half of the year.

The overall figure for the second half of the year were $1.4 billion. The government has not denied that a stimulus payment that was given out before the holidays had something to do with the increase in gambling.

December was where the largest increase for the second half of the year was found. The government, however, also pointed out that overall, gambling is growing much slower than it did in the previous year.

January 24, 2009
Posted By Tom Jones
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com
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