Victorians lose $15 million a day having a bet

The Herald Sun article (from 12 Oct 2012):

Victorians lose $15 million a day having a bet

contains the following information:


VICTORIANS are gambling away $15 million a day - or $625,000 every hour - and suffering record losses.

More than $5.4 billion was lost last financial year - $1.5 billion at Crown casino alone.

reference : http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/victorians-lose-15-million-a-day-having-a-bet/story-e6frf7kx-1226495695406,

Another article from yahoo.com (from 19 Oct 2012):

Gambling costs state $2.7b a year: report

contains the following information:

An inquiry has estimated that problem gambling has cost Victoria's economy up to $2.7 billion a year.

The finding is contained in the Victorian Competition and Efficiency Commission's draft report on the social and economic costs of problem gambling.

The commission says most of the cost is being borne by a relatively small proportion of the Victorian population, around 30,000 problem gamblers and their families.

It says a lack of detailed information has made it difficult to estimate the considerable costs associated with increased demands on the health and human services sectors.

The commissioner who led the inquiry, Bill Mountford, says the draft report is open for public comment before the final report is handed to the Government in December.

"Basically looking for suggestions as to ways that we could improve the estimates that we've made," he said.

"Then we'll be also actively consulting with them around what they see as being the research priorities in the area going forward."

http://au.news.yahoo.com/latest/a/-/latest/15161552/gambling-costs-state-2-7b-a-year-report/

Since Victorians lose $15m per day, that equates to $5.475 billion annually, therefore costing the Victorian economy $5.475 billion annually, and not $2.7 billion.

The current trend in television programming, is to advertise heavily for the masses to take up gambling.

Gambling venues are involved in criminal activities ranging from money laundering to the rigged machines that are set to hold on to the monies put by in gamblers, in accordance with the guidelines set up by each venue.

Authorities are fully aware of these criminal activities, but since the revenue raised is collected by the government, this fraud and criminal activity will only keep on flourishing and not diminish in size.

There is no policy for the government to cuts its revenue by helping people to stop gambling.

Although no current figures have been given for NSW gamblers, allegedly New South Wales politicians will be spending $48 million to 'combat' gambling, or approximately 0.87% of monies lost to gambling in Victoria.

If there was a genuine serious attempt at reducing gambling (which there is not), then the amount spent would be a higher percentage from the total revenue gained.

Politicians and lies going hand in hand in plain sight.