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Queensland LNP promises to increase pokies cap for clubs with more than two premises
(www.abc.net.au)
In short:
- Queensland's LNP opposition wants to increase the cap on poker machines that can operate at clubs with more than two premises.
- The gaming machine cap for a club licensee with three or more sites is 500, but the LNP wants to lift that to 700.
What's next?
- The LNP is taking the policy to the looming October state election, arguing that the proposal would benefit smaller clubs facing closure.
... Don't these statements contradict each other?
-> Applies only to businesses with more than two premises
-> benefits "smaller clubs"
???
Also I love the related stories:
Sorry, did you mean "them" as in your person, or pokies? Because honestly, banning pokies from being anywhere other than casinos (after all, Australia is currently almost the only place you'll ever find pokies outside a casino—with our measly 0.3% of the world's population, we have 75% of its non-casino pokies, and 18% of all the pokies) would be one of the biggest things we could do to improve things. That, plus banning the advertising of gambling like we banned smoking ads decades ago—especially in connection with popular sporting events.
Unfortunately for your person yeah, the most important thing we can do is to prevent people getting addicted in the first place, because it becomes much more difficult once someone already has an addiction. Because yeah, you can try to prevent them accessing it, but someone with an addiction-fed determination will find a way around it. We need to get better at treating it as a serious medical problem, but that's a much harder problem to solve.
Yes, "them" was meant to identify my person. I know without the pokies another addiction probably would have been in its place, it's just I can't help but wonder how many other addictions can lose tens of thousands of dollars in a weekend bender.
It's horrible, but after 12 months of this I sometimes find myself thinking if suicide would have been kinder to the spouse and the rest.
Mostly I wish the mental health route was just easier. Nearly nobody likes to talk about it since it is seen like a failing of the character, not a health issue like a virus. Don't dare say anything at work. The GP simply says "well don't do that then". And friends evaporate at the mention of it. Family are often the cause of it.