It is ironic that Clubs Australia President Peter Newell began his recent National Press Club speech against poker machine pre-commitment technology with a quote about truth from Abraham Lincoln, who is best known for his role in ending slavery in the United States.
Senator Nick Xenophon portrays gambling as a modern day form of slavery.
'The poker machine lobby reminds me a bit like the slave owners of the 19th century in the United States, who say their whole way of life would be ruined if there were any changes bought about. That's how the industry is behaving.'
The Catholic Catechism agrees, stipulating that while games of chance are 'not in themselves contrary to justice', they 'become morally unacceptable when they deprive someone of what is necessary to provide for his needs and those of others. The passion for gambling risks becoming an enslavement'.
Many gamblers lose their liberty to control the amount of money they wager because they are in a trance-like situation. Their discretionary powers are captive to a seductive playing environment, and usually alcohol.
The pre-commitment technology would empower them to decide in advance — while they still have control of their senses — how much money they can afford to part with. It would remove the ill-gotten element of the profits of the pubs and clubs, in that the losses of gamblers will be the result of their rational decision to wager a specific amount of money.
What's wrong with that? The answer is that, if it works, the technology will have a severe impact on the profits of the pub and club owners and the jobs of their employees.
We are about to be subjected to a massive advertising campaign that is likely to depict pubs and clubs as the heart and soul of the community, in other words a contributor to the common good and a moral asset. There is the convivial setting, the subsidised meals, as well as the contributions to charities and sporting clubs.
But these are largely built with funds supplied involuntarily by problem gamblers. A business or facility that is not economically sustainable without ill-gotten funds is surely not morally sustainable. The Catholic Catechism says:
The seventh commandment forbids … enterprises that for any reason — selfish or ideological, commercial, or totalitarian — lead to the enslavement of human beings … It is a sin against the dignity of persons and their fundamental rights to reduce them by violence