How naïve does the Lotteries Commission think the public are? The chief executive is reported to have explained that sporting, arts and community welfare groups rely on Lotto funding, and with declining sales, a new enhancement is needed to boost the revenue stream. So Powerball has been introduced, giving punters a chance to win $15 million.

Are we expected to believe that Lotto exists primarily to help the community? And this new inducement to gamble is all in the interests of the public? Gambling is a prime cause of many of the social problems in New Zealand today. Lured by the pipe-dream of large sums of money falling into their laps, gambling victims lavish what little money they have on Lotto tickets, the pokies, or any of a number of gambling options that have mushroomed over the last decade. The result? A huge debt-load. Families without enough to live on. Children going to school hungry or left to their own devices.

And while welfare groups struggle for resources of finance and personnel to address these community issues, the gambling stakes are raised in an effort to provide more money for the very problems gambling creates! It is incredible that a Government that only last year proclaimed its resolve to ‘close the gaps’ can allow the continued expansion of the lotteries monster that preys on the most vulnerable members of society.

Christian Heritage believes the welfare of the family is of prime importance. Anything that is harmful to the family is ultimately harmful to society. Isn’t it time the Government took a stand against this social evil that is increasingly blighting the lives of vulnerable New Zealanders?

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>