Bradford calls Casino report 'Not Good Enough'

Green Party MP Sue Bradford is challenging Internal Affairs Minister Rick Barker to define the difference between loan sharking and money lending.

Ms Bradford, the Green's Spokesperson on Gambling Issues, says that Minister Barker is failing to do anything about the criminal activity which is evident in and around New Zealand casinos, and that he is instead relying on an old Department of Internal Affairs inquiry, which says that while loan sharking does not occur in casinos, money lending does.

Ms Bradford says that "Minister Barker's idea that money lending isn't loan sharking is ridiculous, and whatever the Government chooses to call it, they need to do more to ensure this type of criminal activity is not taking place either in or around the casinos".

"The sad reality is that casinos in New Zealand have become linked with serious subsequent criminal activity - intimidation, blackmail, kidnapping, recruitment for prostitution and violence. It is just not good enough for the report to split legal hairs between loan sharking and money lending when the impacts on the victims of these criminals can be so devastating.

"Money lending - or loan sharking - are both illegal when they don't comply with the laws around consumer credit and when they are associated with other criminal activity.

"It is clear that much tougher Government action is needed to ensure that casinos themselves better police the activities of dubious characters operating within them, and to encourage both the police and the Department of Internal Affairs to do more to ensure that the laws and protections of New Zealand are applied in this area," she says.

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