October
SeptemberCommendable commission
Australia is blessed to have its Productivity Commission playing a "guardian angel" role.
For problem gamblers, apparently determined to lose, the best prospect is a relentless — you must lose — public-education program: put bluntly, as The Economist magazine did recently, most gambling regulation can be side-stepped using the internet.
Even so it is pleasing that the Australian government is now committed to managing better the convenience-risks conducive to problem gambling.
Prospectively most practical interest will be in the consequences of strengthening competition between clubs and pubs and between TABs and Betfair/bookmakers — strong competition is essential to consumers getting fair-value gambling entertainment.
Gambling is big business and powerful interests dependent on gambling, governments included, have very questionable entitlements to profit from gambling losses. The good news is that those entitlements are being devalued — the competition genie is out of the bottle.
The findings of the Productivity Commission were predictable and commendable — as is usual for the output of this well respected and truly independent public policy agency.
Windang (NSW)