Logical ideas and commentary about society, politics 
I don’t think the people protesting against the proposed poker machine laws have fully understood what they’re standing for. I’d like to help them gain clarity around this issue.
I’ve written a letter (see below) that clearly states the issues at hand.
I think that supporters of the clubs’ position should print a copy of the following letter and sign it and hang it on their letterbox or in the car window so that it’s clear to everyone in their community just what sort of person they are.
Dear Mr Wilkie,
I don’t want you to help problem gamblers.
I like the fact that people with gambling problems are wasting their family’s income in our poker machines because that means I can buy slightly cheaper beer and have free access to club facilities.
I don’t care how much the families of these problem gamblers suffer. Saving a few cents off my beer is much more important to me than whether the lives of their children are being ruined.
I don’t care that every year, in Australia, over 30 problem gamblers commit suicide and a lot more attempt suicide. The lives of 30 people are nothing when compared to the benefits I derive from cheap beer and free access to full size billiard tables.
Furthermore I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure that these problem gamblers keep putting their money into our poker machines. I don’t want anyone to help these problem gamblers get over their addiction because then my beer prices would go up.
If I had a magic wand that could instantly cure all problem gamblers of their addiction there’s no way I’d use it because my local club would immediately lose 40% of its revenue and my beer prices would go up.
In fact what we need is more problem gamblers, we need to encourage them to waste more money in our poker machines so that my beer prices get even cheaper and the club can buy some nicer paintings to hang on the walls to improve the ambience for the rest of the club’s members.
Listen to the people Mr Wilkie! What you’re proposing is un-Australian. You need to get your priorities right: cheap beer is the most important thing to Australians – and we don’t care how we get it – even if innocent families have to suffer!
Let them suffer, that’s their problem.
I want cheap beer!
Regards,
[Sign your name here]
If you like this letter then please click the [Like] and [+1] buttons below and share it with your friends so that everyone who needs to get a copy of this letter has access to it.
We wouldn’t want to deprive opponents of the proposed poker machine reforms the chance to clearly indicate their beliefs to the world now would we?
And please post a reply to let me know what you think.
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By rss
Cheap beer is important but AFL footie and NFL rugby are also important. We can win a premiership if a few more families just forego food for pokies. Selfish buggers just want to waste their money on their kids. people like them shouldn’t be allowed to have kids!
Here are a few more good comments I read today on the crikey blog:
If you start smoking cigarettes inside a club, they’ll escort you out.
If you start slurring your words and stumbling around from too much drink in a club, they’ll escort you out.
But if you sit at the pokies all day every day, nobody says anything to you.
I don’t care how many signs are plastered all over the joint, nor how many leaflets are distributed, problem gambling is a risk to individuals and their families just as much as other addictions. A sign isn’t going to help someone with a problem, but the inability to gamble away all your money just might.
It really doesn’t matter how many basketballs a club buys for the local school, if its bought with money taken out of a problem gambler’s pocket, its still wrong.
Very clever, and it gets a point across very well.
There is however a big difference between helping someone with a problem, and legislating a potential problem out of existence causing the rest of the balanced and responsible people of this world to lose their free will to do what they wish.
If any person wishes to spend their own money on any venture whether it be gambling, cars, alcohol, handbags, smokes or even drugs is no business of anyone else or the Govt.
If the only victim is the person self, then that is their own problem.
We have to be responsible for our own actions, not blame others for our own weaknesses.
If the obtaining of that money results in harm or loss to another then that is a different problem altogether!
I do believe if we should be held accountable for our own responsibilities if we have them, like family, bills, etc.
If one is found to have a problem in this regard, measures should then, and only then, be implemented by the community to rectify the personal situation and guide the individuals future until sense has been rediscovered.