Last night the lovely Mary put to twitter; "On a scale of 1 to 10, how much does Tom Waterhouse bother you?". As I was typing my response I thought I need more than just 140 characters for this. So I have decided to write a post about it.
My response to Mary was "100". Although he blinks at an alarmingly high rate which annoys me, it's not Tom Waterhouse the person that annoys me too much; it's what he stands for & what he's fooling people into doing. I have the same feeling for the Glenn Munsie's & the Jamie Rogers of the world, it's not them; it's the company they're advertising.
I just can't get past that these companies are making billions off other people's misfortunes. It's estimated that the social cost to the community is $4.7 billion a year. $4.7 BILLION! It ruins families, friendships. It ruins lives. The stats show that up to 500,000 Australians are at risk of becoming, or are, problem gamblers. Not only is it a huge issue in Australia, but it's a huge issue in the NRL. It's part of the culture of the game, not only for players but for fans.
On one hand we have Nathan Hindmarsh sending a message urging others to get help with their problem gambling & on the other hand we have betting companies throwing it in our face right throughout a football game.
If gambling can only be done by 18+ then why is there advertising at a 7:30pm time slot on tv, or 5:30pm in the case of Fox Sports. I understand that the NRL do not have control over this but I would like to see them take some control over it in the next tv rights deal. It's about time we started putting people's welfare in front of money.
Not only is it bad to have it shoved in problem gamblers face but kids are growing up knowing way too much about gambling. I'm 26 & I don't know how to start a pokie, I might be able to walk into a tab & fluke putting a bet on but I still don't really know what I'm doing. These kids probably know more than me & it's ridiculous. I've never been a big gambler, I only ever placed bets on the Melbourne Cup & the occasional first try scorer at Parramatta games. Now however, I don't gamble at all as I have seen what gambling can do to a family.
Let's hope the NRL use Chris Sandow as an example in a positive way to help the community and show them that it's ok to ask for help but it's not ok to gamble out of your means.
Only 15% of problem gamblers get help. If you or you suspect someone you know has an issue with problem gambling head to http://www.problemgambling.gov.au/ to get some information on where to start to get help.
Love,
@LadiesWhoLeague
*statistics in this post were sourced from http://www.problemgambling.gov.au/
No comments:
Post a Comment