Gambling industry avoids responsibility for kids on street.

The decision to prosecute a Mangere woman who left her children unsupervised while she gambled on the the pokies highlights the double standard being applied to gambling related offences says Problem Gambling Foundation CEO, John Stansfield.

Mr Stansfield was commenting on the case of two young children who were spotted standing in an Onehunga street by a community constable last week. They had been left to fend for themselves while their mother gambled in the Jellico pub.

"There is no excuse for neglecting your children but there was more than one party involved here,' he said.

"Pokie owners and operators know that gambling on their machines can be dangerous yet they are never held to account when incidents like this occur."

"Pokie machines are often referred to as the "P" of gambling by addiction experts but unlike P related offences the dealer never gets penalised."

"Gambling is never a rational act; it is a form of escapism. It can easily become a habit and when that happens people become totally irrational and may do dreadful things."

Pokie machine owners that fail to prevent people reaching this point are dealers in human misery"

"There are a number of things that the pokie trusts and venue operators should be doing to make their machines safer. The rest of the community expects them to act far more responsibly than they are."

Mr Stansfield says that the gambling industry is sowing the seeds of its own destruction by its refusal to protect its customers from harm.

"They seem to think that by sprinkling a few community grants around they can silence critics indefinitely. Tobacco companies found out that doesn't work in the long term and ended up as pariahs. The pokie trusts seem hell-bent on going down the same track"

Mr Stansfield is disappointed that the clear intention of the Gambling Act is not being upheld by the Gambling Commission which appears content to give a free rein to the pokie trusts to cause as much damage as they want to.

"They seem to think that the Gambling Act is about protecting and enhancing the industries ability to make a profit. We understood it to be about preventing and minimising gambling harm," he said.

"The government will eventually have to intervene to make its intention clear. Things simply cannot go on as they are."

ENDS

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