Next week in parliament (4/11/25) I’ll re-table my Private Members Bill to return money to people who have been robbed by gamblers to bet.
One of the casualties of the election nobody wanted was my bill to have gambling companies return money that’s been stolen to bet. There is no good reason gambling companies should benefit from the proceeds of crime. It’s wrong.
They should not be able to keep money that’s been stolen to gamble.
Yet this is what gambling companies are doing right now. They keep money even though there’s a pile of red flags a punter is betting with stolen money.
But instead of acting on those red flags, gambling companies ramp up the inducements, the hospitality, and the gifts to maximise their take from gambling addicts.
A recent 4 Corners episode “Losing Streak” exposed the vast amounts of money victims lose to gambling companies.
My bill will allow the Supreme Court to make orders for the return of the stolen money, where they can see that the stolen money was used to gamble.
As well as making sure victims of theft get their money back in full, my bill also puts a duty on gambling companies to report to police when they suspect someone might be using stolen money to gamble.
A similar law is already in place in the UK and is working well.
South Australia’s gambling watchdog found 50 per cent of problem gamblers admit to committing crimes to gamble.
Tasmanian Supreme Court data shows a pattern of people committing financial fraud and theft to fund a gambling addiction.
Recently the Rosebery RSL was robbed of money stolen to gamble, and the sad story of butcher “Robbo” Robinson serves as grim reminder after his $420,000 retirement savings was stolen by his gambling-addicted bookkeeper.
My bill would have recovered money from the gambling company who pocketed this money. My bill is part of an effort by independent MPs to create laws nationally and in each state to address this injustice.