http://www.thepunch.com.au/tags/gambling/ Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Wilkie-is-poking-around-on-the-wrong-gambling-issue/ Andrew Wilkie has okayed a lame version of the government’s pokies legislation, which he yesterday called a “stepping stone to meaningful reform in the future”. The guts of the deal is that club ATMs will be able to spit out just $250 worth of pokie playmoney per day, and that pre-commitment to an amount you’re willing to lose will be optional rather than mandatory. The legislation is now toothless on two fronts. Firstly, optional pre-commitment is like offering a drunk the choice of ejecting himself for obnoxiousness. And secondly, the legislation fails to address the burgeoning arena of sports gambling. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Wilkie-is-poking-around-on-the-wrong-gambling-issue/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Wilkie-is-poking-around-on-the-wrong-gambling-issue/#item8569 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 In between promos for Revenge, My Kitchen Rules and Please Marry My Boy, tennis star Marcos Baghdatis had a wee meltdown at the Australian Open on Wednesday and smashed his way through four shiny blue tennis racquets. Given he scored a pay cheque of $20,000 just for winning round one, the $770 fine meted out to Baghdatis must have made those poor racquets feel positively worthless. I love the Aussie Open. Like interminable school holidays (“Muuum!” “Muuum!” “Muuum!”) it’s synonymous with summer. But if tempers can fray on the court, imagine how the rest of us feel at home. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-tennis-is-awesome-but-i-dont-love-all/ In between promos for Revenge, My Kitchen Rules and Please Marry My Boy, tennis star Marcos Baghdatis had a wee meltdown at the Australian Open on Wednesday and smashed his way through four shiny blue tennis racquets. Given he scored a pay cheque of $20,000 just for winning round one, the $770 fine meted out to Baghdatis must have made those poor racquets feel positively worthless. I love the Aussie Open. Like interminable school holidays (“Muuum!” “Muuum!” “Muuum!”) it’s synonymous with summer. But if tempers can fray on the court, imagine how the rest of us feel at home. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-tennis-is-awesome-but-i-dont-love-all/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-tennis-is-awesome-but-i-dont-love-all/#item7577 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 In between promos for Revenge, My Kitchen Rules and Please Marry My Boy, tennis star Marcos Baghdatis had a wee meltdown at the Australian Open on Wednesday and smashed his way through four shiny blue tennis racquets. Given he scored a pay cheque of $20,000 just for winning round one, the $770 fine meted out to Baghdatis must have made those poor racquets feel positively worthless. I love the Aussie Open. Like interminable school holidays (“Muuum!” “Muuum!” “Muuum!”) it’s synonymous with summer. But if tempers can fray on the court, imagine how the rest of us feel at home. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/id-lie-awake-pokie-music-running-through-my-head/ Everyone’s talking about poker machines these days. Our politicians and our newspapers, our clubs and pubs; everyone has an opinion on what we should and shouldn’t do with regards to the pokies. But they’re talking about numbers and policies, votes and strategies and campaigns. They’re not talking about the people who have been hurt, who are hurting still. People like me. When I was 24 years old, I had the world on a string. Life was mine for the taking. I was engaged to be married and surrounded by fantastic friends; I had my university degree framed on the wall, a great job and excellent prospects. But by the time I turned 25, life as I knew it was over. I was addicted to poker machines. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/id-lie-awake-pokie-music-running-through-my-head/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/id-lie-awake-pokie-music-running-through-my-head/#item7551 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 In between promos for Revenge, My Kitchen Rules and Please Marry My Boy, tennis star Marcos Baghdatis had a wee meltdown at the Australian Open on Wednesday and smashed his way through four shiny blue tennis racquets. Given he scored a pay cheque of $20,000 just for winning round one, the $770 fine meted out to Baghdatis must have made those poor racquets feel positively worthless. I love the Aussie Open. Like interminable school holidays (“Muuum!” “Muuum!” “Muuum!”) it’s synonymous with summer. But if tempers can fray on the court, imagine how the rest of us feel at home. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/hey-Xenophon-dont-shoot-the-gambling-messengers/ There are 20 minutes remaining. Score’s locked at 16-all. The young family is in the lounge room, a rare event in itself, nervously watching their Wests Tigers. As a scrum is formed, Ray Warren proclaims with a hint of surprise the Tigers are $2.15 to win on TAB Sportsbet. Dad, slumped in his armchair, jolts, bolt upright. He commands his eight-year-old boy to bring him the phone. The little boy marvels as he watches Dad punch in the numbers with vigour. Dad replaces his customary “hello” for a mysterious set of numbers, before announcing down the line - no, demanding - he will have a hundred dollars on the Wests Tigers, and doing it with a sense of pride. The conversation ends, the phone dispensed with. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/hey-Xenophon-dont-shoot-the-gambling-messengers/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/hey-Xenophon-dont-shoot-the-gambling-messengers/#item7383 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 In between promos for Revenge, My Kitchen Rules and Please Marry My Boy, tennis star Marcos Baghdatis had a wee meltdown at the Australian Open on Wednesday and smashed his way through four shiny blue tennis racquets. Given he scored a pay cheque of $20,000 just for winning round one, the $770 fine meted out to Baghdatis must have made those poor racquets feel positively worthless. I love the Aussie Open. Like interminable school holidays (“Muuum!” “Muuum!” “Muuum!”) it’s synonymous with summer. But if tempers can fray on the court, imagine how the rest of us feel at home. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/pokie-reform-will-help-people-know-when-to-fold-em/ Father Chris Riley, founder of Youth Off The Streets, is under fire for attacking the proposed pokie reforms and siding with Clubs Australia; all while his charities pocket money from clubs. Here’s another perspective from a respected church leader. In the race for headlines and hysteria, the poker machine reform debate has fallen through the cracks of serious social progress. In their eagerness to beat back the Government’s agenda on poker machines, pushing their polished and focus tested ‘license to punt’ line, Big Clubs have churned out an astounding $20 million hoping to hit the jackpot. Through my work with disadvantaged and discriminated Australians, I saw the implementation of poker machine reform as an opportunity to discuss the facts and impacts of problem gambling in Australia. Disappointingly, the lobbyists and ad agencies have had their way once again, turning an issue that destroys lives and families into yet another expensive political sideshow. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/pokie-reform-will-help-people-know-when-to-fold-em/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/pokie-reform-will-help-people-know-when-to-fold-em/#item7329 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 In between promos for Revenge, My Kitchen Rules and Please Marry My Boy, tennis star Marcos Baghdatis had a wee meltdown at the Australian Open on Wednesday and smashed his way through four shiny blue tennis racquets. Given he scored a pay cheque of $20,000 just for winning round one, the $770 fine meted out to Baghdatis must have made those poor racquets feel positively worthless. I love the Aussie Open. Like interminable school holidays (“Muuum!” “Muuum!” “Muuum!”) it’s synonymous with summer. But if tempers can fray on the court, imagine how the rest of us feel at home. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/hokey-pokie-over-speaker-may-shaft-problem-gamblers/ Tony Abbott described the events in Canberra yesterday surrounding the speakership of the Parliament as a bad day for democracy. Abbott was right, but for the wrong reasons. The most undemocratic outcome of yesterday’s events could now be that a reform aimed at making life more bearable for problem gamblers, which is supported by a majority of Australians, will now be dumped because Labor has the numbers in the house to get away with pulling it, thus avoiding a fight to the death with powerful gambling interests. Labor might have been cock-a-hoop at yesterday’s developments but the people who will be even happier are the cashed-up, morally ambivalent multi-millionaires in the gaming industry, who have been escalating their self-interested campaign to knock off suburban Labor MPs lest the Government support the proposed pokie reforms. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/hokey-pokie-over-speaker-may-shaft-problem-gamblers/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/hokey-pokie-over-speaker-may-shaft-problem-gamblers/#item7236 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 In between promos for Revenge, My Kitchen Rules and Please Marry My Boy, tennis star Marcos Baghdatis had a wee meltdown at the Australian Open on Wednesday and smashed his way through four shiny blue tennis racquets. Given he scored a pay cheque of $20,000 just for winning round one, the $770 fine meted out to Baghdatis must have made those poor racquets feel positively worthless. I love the Aussie Open. Like interminable school holidays (“Muuum!” “Muuum!” “Muuum!”) it’s synonymous with summer. But if tempers can fray on the court, imagine how the rest of us feel at home. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Costello-is-a-one-armed-bandit-of-misinformation/ It’s clear from his Punch article that Reverend Tim Costello hasn’t bothered to speak to manufacturers, the industry, or even read the Productivity Commission report before making his claims about mandatory pre-commitment. In fact based on his claims, I doubt he’d be able to identify a pokie in a police line-up. We get it Tim. You hate pokies. So much so that you rejected the $500,000 donation club members tried to give World Vision after the Boxing Day Tsunami. Fortunately CARE Australia and Father Chris Riley’s Youth off the Streets had no issue accepting the eventual $3 million. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Costello-is-a-one-armed-bandit-of-misinformation/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Costello-is-a-one-armed-bandit-of-misinformation/#item7107 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 In between promos for Revenge, My Kitchen Rules and Please Marry My Boy, tennis star Marcos Baghdatis had a wee meltdown at the Australian Open on Wednesday and smashed his way through four shiny blue tennis racquets. Given he scored a pay cheque of $20,000 just for winning round one, the $770 fine meted out to Baghdatis must have made those poor racquets feel positively worthless. I love the Aussie Open. Like interminable school holidays (“Muuum!” “Muuum!” “Muuum!”) it’s synonymous with summer. But if tempers can fray on the court, imagine how the rest of us feel at home. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/friday-dilemma-how-to-reward-a-melb-cup-angel/ By now, you’re sick of the Cup, we’re sick of the Cup. But here’s a doozy of a dilemma regarding the luckiest and most ungrateful punter in Australia. On Tuesday, a friend of The Punch’s went to the TAB to put on his bets. Before leaving, he asked his workmates if he could put any bets on for them. One guy in his 60s gave our friend $6 for a “mystery box trifecta”. That’s when the TAB computer randomly selects three horses and if they run the placings any which way, the bet wins. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/friday-dilemma-how-to-reward-a-melb-cup-angel/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/friday-dilemma-how-to-reward-a-melb-cup-angel/#item7074 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 In between promos for Revenge, My Kitchen Rules and Please Marry My Boy, tennis star Marcos Baghdatis had a wee meltdown at the Australian Open on Wednesday and smashed his way through four shiny blue tennis racquets. Given he scored a pay cheque of $20,000 just for winning round one, the $770 fine meted out to Baghdatis must have made those poor racquets feel positively worthless. I love the Aussie Open. Like interminable school holidays (“Muuum!” “Muuum!” “Muuum!”) it’s synonymous with summer. But if tempers can fray on the court, imagine how the rest of us feel at home. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/pokie-palaces-are-sucking-the-life-out-of-communities/ Now our Melbourne Cup flutters are out of the way it is worth investigating how it became valid political logic that the healthy fabric of Australian life would be shredded without big-scale gambling. Not on horses, but gambling on pokies. Not by once-a-year punters or leviathan professionals, by low-income earners who can suddenly find their rent has disappeared down the maw of a gaming machine. The glorified role of pokies is a political creation and it is total rubbish. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/pokie-palaces-are-sucking-the-life-out-of-communities/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/pokie-palaces-are-sucking-the-life-out-of-communities/#item7069 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 In between promos for Revenge, My Kitchen Rules and Please Marry My Boy, tennis star Marcos Baghdatis had a wee meltdown at the Australian Open on Wednesday and smashed his way through four shiny blue tennis racquets. Given he scored a pay cheque of $20,000 just for winning round one, the $770 fine meted out to Baghdatis must have made those poor racquets feel positively worthless. I love the Aussie Open. Like interminable school holidays (“Muuum!” “Muuum!” “Muuum!”) it’s synonymous with summer. But if tempers can fray on the court, imagine how the rest of us feel at home. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Why-im-boycotting-the-punting-slaughterhouse/ Tom Waterhouse has driven me to this. The scion of the Waterhouse racing family appearing far too often on my television to declare that while he possessed no actual talent he would happily part me with my money was – as they say – the last straw. Watching the Wallabies get smashed by the Kiwis in the World Cup was hard enough without watching Waterhouse continually pop up on my screen asking for cash like some transient beggar. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Why-im-boycotting-the-punting-slaughterhouse/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Why-im-boycotting-the-punting-slaughterhouse/#item7043 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 In between promos for Revenge, My Kitchen Rules and Please Marry My Boy, tennis star Marcos Baghdatis had a wee meltdown at the Australian Open on Wednesday and smashed his way through four shiny blue tennis racquets. Given he scored a pay cheque of $20,000 just for winning round one, the $770 fine meted out to Baghdatis must have made those poor racquets feel positively worthless. I love the Aussie Open. Like interminable school holidays (“Muuum!” “Muuum!” “Muuum!”) it’s synonymous with summer. But if tempers can fray on the court, imagine how the rest of us feel at home.