Gambling in Victoria proven to cause homelessness

Victoria is a a sad state when another country uses us as an example of what not to do. Unfortunately Victoria has earned the reputation of the worst example of gaming regulation and expansion.

The UK's The Guardian reports on recently published research into links between gambling and homelessness among over 50s conducted in four english cities, as well as Boston in the US and Melbourne, here in Australia.

The research had the following findings which indicate the problems we have in Melbourne:

It revealed patterns of homelessness in over 50s to be broadly similar, except in Australia where it identified a link between homelessness and gambling that appeared not to exist in the other study areas.

Of the 125 homeless people from Australia surveyed as part of the study, 38% mentioned gambling as a cause of their problems. In England and Massachusetts only 4% cited this as a reason.

Melbourne should be ashamed of these results. The rest of the world think we should be. A spokesman for the UK Department of Culture, Media and Sport had the following to say:

"We are removing restrictions on some kinds of casino, but it won't lead to the problems they've had in Australia, which has the worst problem gambling rates in the world," he said.

"They made the mistake in Australia of liberalising gambling laws without effective balances, so now these machines are everywhere. We have learned from Australia by restricting certain types of machines and where they can go. You cannot draw a valid comparison between the two countries."

However it is not good enough just to acknowledge that we have a problem here in Victoria, we need to do something about it. As a community we need to ensure that governments understand that we will not tolerate the continuation of this harmful situation.

GG.