By Russell Powell, Anglican Diocese of Sydney, with additional reporting by ACNS staff

The Diocese of Sydney has voted to divest in companies that receive significant profits from gambling revenue.

The decision to divest was part of a motion by the Synod calling for more concrete action to reduce the impact of problem gambling across New South Wales.

In a debate led by the Canon Sandy Grant, Senior Minister of St Michael's Cathedral in Wollongong, the Synod was told the state’s gambling expenditure totals $7.15 billion per annum and $2 billion in the Illawarra alone.

Air bags for poker machines

Canon Grant compared the rate of problem gambling to those hospitalised in car accidents.

“Even though car accident hospitalisation occurs at a rate five times lower than problem gambling, we approve all sorts of limits on our roads. Seat belts, speed limits, speed cameras.” he said.

“We need harm minimisation measures recommended by experts independent of vested interests, such as pubs and clubs who will not act against their profit motive, but have dominated the debate. In particular, we need to put air bags and seat belts on poker machines!”

Supporting a $1 limit

The Synod welcomed a key Parliamentary report on gambling and ‘grieved’ that people in NSW have above-average expenditure on gambling.

Canon Grant moving the anti-gambling motion

It also supported a number of measures to reduce the impact of problem gambling including introducing a $1 maximum bet limit for poker machines and stopping the disproportionate concentration of poker machines in lower socio-economic areas.

“The $1 bet was also proposed by the Federal Parliament’s Select Committees into gambling reform.” Canon Grant said. “Ironically, the original evidence for $1 bets in an Australian context even came from a study funded by the NSW gambling industry, which they now run a mile from.”

There was also a call for gambling venues to develop an intervention scheme to assist problem gamblers.

Divestment in companies that benefit

The motion was amended to include a call for Sydney Anglican affiliated organisations to divest of any investments in any company whose revenue from gambling exceeds either 10% of revenue or $50 million per annum by the end of the year.

Some Synod members wanted stronger measures, such as disinvesting in any company which profited in any way at all from gambling, but the 10 percent limit stands.