...Press Release...
The sad case of the mother of two who has been sentenced to 2½ years in prison because of the money she stole from the
University of Auckland to feed her VIP Member of Sky City gambling activities, is yet another example of everybody
losing, except the people who now have the money. The Problem Gambling Foundation despairs of this type of disaster
being allowed to happen yet again.
So who has, or hasn't got, what?
The University no longer has the money The mother no longer has her freedom Her children will visit her in jail for the
next year or two and carry those memories for a long time Her family may never regain their honour Her work-mates will
be dazed and confused We all must be near tears to again read of this type of tragedy
And what of Sky City.?
They've got the money They have not offered any of us an apology for not making sure they were more aware of what was
going on They will do it again!
The advent of Sky City's new player tracking technology* (for marketing purposes, and which they hope to have in place
during 2009) will allow them to identify these behaviours. It may even allow our courts to judge that the situation is
more than just a series of unfortunate losses.
PGF says to Sky City - "Pay the money back. Students shouldn't have to make good this loss".
*
http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/0D6566810942FA10CC2574B1001D9612?Opendocument=2,big,task
From Computerworld article on Sky City IT development. "Technology improvement underpins the majority of the company's
stated strategic priorities for 2008-09, which include the improvement of customer service and marketing and the need to
maximise the potential of existing assets as well as the significant enhancement of IT and systems capability."
ENDS