It’s a common theme in my adopted country that Australians quite like gambling. The oft used phrase is that Aussies will bet on two flys crawling up a wall. The culture of punting is certainly prevalent here, but surely even this is taking it too far.
Its a story from yesterday’s Sydney Morning Herald about ‘clubs’ building creches so that parents can play bingo and put money into poker machines without having to worry about looking after their children. To quote David Marsh, the general manager of Ingleburn RSL;
“Our trade is affected during school holidays, when our bingo and raffles really drop off. The main point of the exercise was to allow people to come here and enjoy those activities during school holidays.”
This would be outrageous if it wasn’t so funny. Even Backberner predicted this about five years ago. A couple had been convicted of locking their children in their car whilst they went for a bet in the local RSL. Apparently leaving children in a car in direct sunlight for a couple of hours is a bad idea. Who’d have thought it? Backberner interviewed a (fake) representative of a (fake) casino whose sole contribution to addressing this social problem was addressed by saying “The problem wouldn’t happen at our casino, the car park has a roof”.
Mr T,
I read this, laughed, and then read your previous article on Responisble Parenting and went hmmm … Wine clubs / Casino’s – its all the same, you bad father you!
I never claimed that I was morally consistent. Anyway, I took Ollywood *into* the wine tasting with me. I didn’t leave him in the car park.