Email Your MP

The Federal Government has finally released its National Gambling Reform bill and it's worse than nothing.

We've put together a simple, side-by-side comparison of the Government's new bill vs. real reform which you can see below. Will you join us in calling-on all Federal politicians to reject this smokescreen of a bill and demand real reform? Email your MP using our handy tool on the right.

(Click here or click on the image to see a larger version)

The cashed up clubs and hotels industry think they've won this fight and have spent many millions of dollars convincing politicians to abandon real reform - but at what cost to society?

Here's what it's costing us:

• 40% of all losses on poker machines come from problem gamblers.^[1]
• Poker machines are the second highest cause of crime in the community after the illicit drug trade.^[2]
• Melbourne's Alfred Hospital reports that one in five suicide attempts are due to gambling addiction.^[3]
• The industry likes to pretend its enormous profits are going back to the community - but they actually receive more in tax breaks than the minuscule fraction (on average, less than 2.6%) they give back to the community.^[4]

[1]Gambling Report Volume I (Report NO 50), Australian Productivity Commission, 26 February 2010.
[2]The Relationship between Crime and Gaming Expenditure in Victoria.' Victorian Department of Justice. p.71
[3]Kate Hagan, 'Gambling linked to one in five suicidal patients', The Age. 21 April, 2010,
[4]Nick O'Malley, 'Clubs hitting the jackpot and keeping most of the booty', Sydney Morning Herald. 16 April, 2010.