September 13, 2007
Rowing chief contaminated by toxic money

The chief executive of Rowing New Zealand is a victim of the toxic effect of handling dirty money says the Problem Gambling Foundation.

CEO John Stansfield says that organisations taking pokie funding are placing themselves in moral jeopardy because of the source of the funds.

"While we were all thrilled at the success of Kiwi rowers in the recent world championship it came at a high price for some New Zealanders," he says.

"Rowing is a big recipient of pokie funding and that money is dragged out of the most vulnerable people in the poorest communities.

"The success of the rowers came at the expense of children going without basics they need, suicides, poverty, bankruptcies and increased levels of crime."

Mr Stansfield says he understands how sporting organisations get hooked on pokie money because it is very easy to get compared with traditional fundraising methods.

But he says that taking money from people who had been lured into a lifestyle that revolved around sitting in a trance at a seedy pokie bar for hours on end was not compatible with promoting a healthy lifestyle.

He also points out that rowing was not a sport that people in the poorer communities usually participated in but they were the ones funding it.

"Ignoring ethical considerations will eventually catch up with you," he says.

"Mr Ross is not the first person to run aground on the rock of pokie funding.

"In fact his misuse of money is at the lower end of the spectrum. It is common to see people who have access to pokie money misusing it. At least in this case it was not for personal gain."

Mr Stansfield says that gambling, tobacco and alcohol sponsorship all contradicted the main purpose of sport and points to the ban on smoking sponsorship as the way forward.

"Sporting organisations do need support, and we need to find ethical ways of doing so," he says.

He is critical of the lack of accountability, transparency and responsibility of the gambling trusts that own pokie machines.

"The trusts could do a lot to clean up the industry by making their machines safer and becoming accountable to the communities they take their money out of.

"They show no sign of doing this voluntarily. Unless the government forces them to change we will continue to see worthy organisations contaminated by their filthy money and good peoples lives destroyed by problem gambling."

ENDS

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