Keeping poker machines in Tasmania is “like saying let’s put ice or cocaine in pubs and clubs, but give people the freedom to choose whether they use it”.
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That’s the view of national pokies reform advocate Tim Costello, who was in the state on Wednesday.
The Alliance for Gambling Reforms director said the industry’s claim that removing poker machines would put 5000 jobs at risk was “scaremongering”.
“Fear works, but it’s completely untrue,” he said.
“Pokies destroy jobs, they are designed for addiction. Sure you have got to be individually responsible, but it’s the machine that’s built for addiction.
“It’s like saying lets put ice in pubs and tax it and say we’ve got the freedom to choose ice, or cocaine, it’s highly addictive.”
He described the pokies conversation as being equivalent to that of the gun control debate in the United States.
“It’s got this parallel … the second amendment when it was written in America referred to muskets.
“Pokies, when they came here, were coin operated and you couldn’t do much damage, now they’re digital and you can load up $7500.
“So like the musket has now changed to semi-automatic, but with the same rights to freedom, the pokies have gone from coin operated to massive, quick damage and you have this ‘nanny state, don’t interrupt our freedom’ argument.”
This state is about to set a course, not for the next few years, but for decades to come.
- Tim Costello
The impact poker machines have on the community goes beyond financial loss, Mr Costello said.
Previously working as a lawyer, he said his passion for pokies reform developed when he represented a woman who lost her business and whose marriage failed after she stole $60,000 to “feed her pokies addiction”.
“She got four years in jail for that theft,” he said.
“She didn't drink or smoke and I said ‘how does a law-abiding person become a criminal, how does this happen?’ and the answer was ‘the addiction of pokies’. That really snapped me, I thought what are these machines?”
Tasmania would become the first state in Australia to remove the machines if Labor’s plan goes ahead.
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In December the party announced the $55 million five-year plan to phase out pokies from all Tasmanian pubs and clubs, with the machines to remain in casinos.
The plan would see 2375 machines removed by 2023.
The Liberals pledged to cap the number of pokies, reducing the total number of machines in the state from 3680 to 3530.
During an exclusive Fairfax Tasmania debate between Premier Will Hodgman and Opposition Leader Rebecca White on Tuesday night, the controversial policy was raised.
Ms White said her party was “putting the welfare of people first”.
However, Mr Hodgman said it was not up to a government to decide how people spent their money and removing poker machines would only “hurt” businesses and employees.
Mr Costello said it was poker machines that ruined businesses and jobs.
“Whatever the election outcome, things are set to dramatically change in relation to the level of harm caused by poker machines in Tasmania,” he said.
“This state is about to set a course, not for the next few years, but for decades to come.”