Did you know that gambling companies have virtually no responsibility to keep an eye out for gambling addicts or stolen money? In fact the situation is even worse than that because clubs, pubs, casinos, online gambling companies and other betting agencies don’t want to know where the money comes from, because they only want to maximise their profits. It’s as simple as that.
And that’s why I’m pushing for laws to force gambling companies to pay back the proceeds of crime. It’s actually as simple as that, especially if we’re going to help people like Greg Zeuschner who was about to sell his business when an employee, who was also a family friend, confessed to stealing $3.6 million to feed her poker machine addiction at a sports club and an RSL, both of which have refused to return the stolen money.
This is why we need reform, to ensure that gambling companies are held to account and no longer allowed to knowingly profit from illegal behaviour. And I say knowingly, because it’s a fact that gambling addiction is second only to drug addiction as a cause of crime. In other words, the gambling industry is a willing accomplice to crime, and it knows it.
No wonder the industry, and their mates in the major parties, continue to resist reform.