Gambling is a Vice - ACDP

Gambling is a Vice - ACDP

Cheryllyn Dudley MP - ACDP

Thursday, 23 August 2001

Cheryllyn Dudley MP for the African Christian Democratic Party and
member of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry,
today said that the Portfolio Committee were briefed yesterday by the
National Gambling Board of South Africa regarding their research
project, which is set to obtain a comprehensive assessment of the
socio-economic impact of the gambling industry in South Africa. The
study is to include policy recommendations which will assist government
in policy making and planning.

Mrs Dudley said that similar impact studies, which have already been
done in countries which have legalised gambling decades ago, clearly
highlight the negative impact gambling has had on societies in general.
According to Mrs Dudley the South African government has simply chosen
to ignore those previous studies. She said, "We therefore assume that
government feels that it would be worth its' while to continue down this
road which has proven to lead to destruction."

"Regulation rather than prohibition is what government is saying and
taxation is its reason." Mrs Dudley said, "The fact is that rich people
do not buy lottery tickets, it is internationally accepted that the
lottery is a poor mans game, therefore this is a tax on the poor."

Mrs Dudley said, "By the National Gambling Board's own admittance, in
their research brief to the portfolio committee, they stated that
gambling is a vice. Gambling contributes to poverty through the
perception of a quick remedy, whether it is through marketing or simple
desperation on the part of those gambling. Regulation certainly will not
turn a vice into a virtue."


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For more information please call Cheryllyn Dudley MP at 082 8906520 or
ACDP Media Liaison Liza Lambert at 082 4781037