Australian Gambling News: Tasmania Wants to Force Breaks on Gamblers - Gambling911 - 23rd March 2009

The Tasmanian government wants to reduced the number of people addicted to pokie machines by forcing them to take breaks.

The Treasurer Michael Aird has announced a range of measures to further protect people addicted to poker machines.

They include a mandatory code of practice for gambling, reducing the maximum bet on poker machines.

"The more player breaks you can induce the more you can mitigate player behaviour," Aird said.

"'They' are at at again!" declared Australia Media Man, Greg Tingle. "'They' are wanting to control people's behavior. They are Government and organisations with hidden agendas. ‘They' are sometimes church groups, lobby groups and government spooks. ‘They' are everywhere and amongst us."

Tingle also warns of the language that "They" use in describing the need to control gambling behavior.

"Be watching out for the word ‘mitigate'," he says. "It's another word for ‘Control'. Mitigate - To moderate (a quality or condition) in force or intensity!"

....Good Friday Bets Won't Happen In South Australia: Gambling Minister Tom Koutsantonis says he wrote to UNiTAB, which owns the South Australian TAB, to make clear it is not allowed to take bets on Good Friday.

He says UNiTAB has withdrawn its plan for the Good Friday trial.

"The TAB were about to, for the first time in SA, have a trial. They were going to open a call centre and take internet bets. On Good Friday and Christmas that's illegal in SA and in breach of their agreement," the Minister said.

"If they continued with that trial they could have been open to a $60,000 fine."

....Internet Service Provider Pulls Out of Australia Censorship Trial: Australia's third largest internet provider, iiNet, has withdrawn from the Government's internet censorship trials, saying it could not "reconcile participation in the trial with our corporate social responsibility".

The move comes after the anonymous whistleblower site Wikileaks last week published a leaked copy of the secret Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) blacklist of prohibited websites, which forms the backbone of the Government's censorship policy.

That list included online poker sites.

"The ISP's have started to pull out of the trial, starting with iiNet, now that the Government's real agenda is becoming much clearer thanks to the leaking of information about the list," Tingle said.

"Industry rumours indicate that not only has Betfair been banned but also PokerStars and PokerNews.com I can't wait to find out if our Casino News Media has made the Government's hate list also. They don't always see eye to eye with journalists or gaming entrepreneurs, so I'm betting I'm on the list! I would also bet that if Gambling911 gets a .com.au they will make the list also!"

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