Hon Chairperson, hon Minister and hon members, the ACDP strongly objects to the National Gambling Amendment Bill. This Bill was supposedly proposed specifically as a way to prevent crime and to protect players, problem gamblers and the underage and as an alternative to the currently completely unregulated environment.
The fact is that gambling in general does exactly the opposite of this. It creates more gamblers, addicts and helps crime to escalate by creating people who are desperate and who have to steal to support their habit.
Exploitation of the poor is not acceptable under any name or under any circumstance, especially not for profit. And, this particular thing, gambling, whether interactive or any other way, takes the food out of the mouths of children and of babies every single day. Fathers gamble their salaries away and they do not provide for their children.
Gambling is destructive and will not contribute to effective nation building and this is becoming more evident daily. It is being proven that gambling is unprofitable and cannot be defended in terms of benefiting the economy.
This new gambling culture encourages greediness and instantaneous gratification and undermines family life, the need to study, delayed consumption and parsimony. Gambling is a direct attack on the family and promotes prostitution, money laundering, gangsters, drug and liquor abuse, as well as divorce and abuse of women and children. This is a serious issue which government should not make light of. And how does gambling and all its ill effects socially create a better life for all? It does not.
A few years ago Blade Nzimande said, and I quote:
Gambling was undermining the struggle to eradicate poverty in South Africa and we call on government to review gambling and the lottery as these further impoverish the poor.
Also, this idea that gambling creates jobs is unsubstantiated. The lottery does not create wealth, rather it consumes it. If people did not spend money on gambling, they would spend on something creating more useful jobs in other sectors. Gambling encourages people to take chances and not to work hard, hence the ACDP wants to see a culture of hard work cultivated within our country.
Gambling contributes to poverty through the perception of a quick remedy, whether it is through marketing or simple desperation on the part of those gamblers.
The ACDP supports the statements made by Ben Turok, and I quote:
When you have a relative evil in society either we legislate to prohibit it or curb it, you don't legislate to encourage it.
To conclude, gambling, whether on the Internet or in the casino, is evil and must be done away with entirely. It eats away at the moral fibre of society. This Bill is not morally justifiable. Thank you.