As the Chair of the Australian Churches Gambling Taskforce and a Common Grace Board Member, I’m excited to share a new video, which premiered on ABC 7:00 National News last night.
It's a short, cheeky video that shows how poker machines are designed to deceive. And there are now 200,000 of them in Australia, resulting in losses of $32 million every day.
As a Christian, I am profoundly saddened by how poker machines target society’s most vulnerable and ruin lives, and feel compelled to make a stand to see an end to this injustice. This is why Common Grace is proud to be a part of the ‘Pokies Play You’ campaign being run by a diverse coalition of community groups called the Alliance for Gambling Reform.
In recent months, we have been busy building the case for a landmark legal challenge against the multi-billion gambling industry. Pro bono lawyers for the Alliance for Gambling Reform will argue that the machines are illegal, because they break Australian consumer law.
The reality is that many Australians do not know the outrageous action that this industry has been allowed to get away with for so long. That’s why we’ve produced this short video that explains the poker machine con-job that’s at the heart of our court action.
There’s a lot to be done in coming months. But I’m excited by the impact we can make.
- Tim Costello, Board Member, Common Grace