Proceeds of crime should be returned to victims

It's time to start recovering the proceeds of crime from the gambling industry says the Problem Gambling Foundation.

CEO John Stansfield says that the case of a Chubb security guard who stole over $50,000 from KiwiBank is just one of dozens of examples of people who commit crimes to fund their gambling habits each year.

"A lot of people bear the cost of gambling related crime. The offender goes to jail, their family suffers, the taxpayer bears the cost of trial and incarceration, the victim loses their money or an insurance company pays.

"The gambling operator is the only one who doesn't pay - they are laughing all the way to the bank.

"Stolen money isn't consumed when it is gambled. It's simply transferred to the gambling operator with little or no additional outlay on their part. It could easily be recovered and returned to its rightful owner."

Mr Stansfield says that gambling operators are only allowed to have hazardous products like pokie machines on condition they run host responsibility programmes that prevent problem gambling. He says that too many of them get away with ignoring this requirement.

"The result is that people are able to spend prolonged periods gambling away large amounts of money without the operators intervening. It's good for their profits and they don't care where the money comes from.

Mr Stansfield says that it is almost impossible for staff at casinos at pokie bars not to notice when people are spending a lot of time gambling and usually they should be able to pick when they are spending more than they can afford.

"Problem gamblers stand out, you have to deliberately close your eyes not to notice them if you know what to look for," he says.

"This is particularly true in a small country like New Zealand. Most of the people who regularly frequent pokie bars and the casino don't have much money. How could you not notice someone gambling away thousands of dollars?

"When host responsibility is ignored the stolen money should be recovered from the gambling operator.

"I bet we would see a remarkable drop in this type of crime and a new enthusiasm for decent host responsibility from the gambling industry."

Mr Stansfield says that ideally problem gambling would be prevented before it developed by using technology like player tracking systems to monitor peoples gambling behaviour.

"The Gambling Act is being reviewed at present and we are making detailed submissions on how gambling crime can be reduced through preventing problem gambling," he says.

"Removing the immunity of gambling operators when it comes to receiving stolen property is a critical part of this."

Mr Stansfield says this is an issue that insurers, bankers and business should be raising with the government as it costs them millions of dollars every year unnecessarily.

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