Welfare official warns gamblers

By Elizabeth Vuvu
GAMBLING can have a direct negative impact on families, especially if both parents are heavily involved in it, East New Britain welfare and child protection officer Philip Kuamin says.
Currently, the acting provincial community development adviser, Kuamin said poker machines, “housies” and bingo often denied poorer families of money and food if a parent or both gambled.
He said parents tend to send their children off to school and instead of tending to the garden or earning an honest living, their entire day was engaged in “housies” or bingo.
“At the moment, ‘housies’ are being hosted at public places like markets during the weekends and school holidays which is not appropriate because children have to be taught the right way to look for their earnings,” he said.
Kuamin said pokies were worse because money received fortnightly was lost and parents were faced with the dilemma of what to feed their children till the next pay day.
He said though the government collected revenue from pokies, banning it would be good as it could be organised for charity organisations.
Kuamin suggested that before the government fully banned pokies, it might be an idea to restrict them to two or three days a week.
He said the media played a major role in doing surveys and vox-pops out in public areas to get the general view of what people thought about the possible ban on pokies.
Kuamin applauded the decision by the ENB administration and provincial liquor licensing committee to suspend the issuance of licences and permits for “housies” and bingo in the province for 12 months.
He agreed this will encourage the local people to work harder on their land.