In a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, an anti-gambling group, Bad Bets, has been handing out flyers with disturbing images in front of Officer Primary School. The group said it’s handing out the flyers to warn parents about plans to open gambling facilities near the school.
The flyers read, “There are plans to put poker machines within 100 meters of Officer Primary School. Poker machines are the second leading cause of crime in the community, after the illegal drug trade. If you want to protect Officer from crime, domestic violence and poverty, oppose plans to have a new poker machine venue in Station Street.”
Bad Bets spokesperson Rohan Wenn said the flyer’s images, depicting a battered woman and a man committing a robbery with a gun, portray the true impact of gambling. “If you are offended by a photo of someone who has been assaulted, surely you should be more offended by the fact that poker machines increase domestic violence. Kids shouldn’t see this imagery, but their parents absolutely need to.”
Parents Victoria Director Gail McHardy responded, “The campaign pamphlet clearly stated ‘Don’t show this pamphlet to your kids’ so why would it be distributed outside the school gate to parents and caregivers when children will be with them at that drop-off or pick-up time?”
Currently about 27,000 poker machines are in operation in Victoria gaming rooms. Altogether, Australian gamblers lost about $12 billion on slot machines between 2015-16.
