Mildura, riverside tourist destination and centre of Australia’s Sunraysia fruit-growing district, has been selected by corporate interests as a site to set up a casino.

The tycoons involved are being represented publicly by a mouth-piece, Mr Haddad, who visited Mildura yesterday for an invitation-only release of plans to councillors etc.

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The casino, with 220-room hotel attached, is described by its proponents as “iconic and grand in all respects”.

Yes it does sound stupidly ostentatious — for example, its third floor swimming pool with a view over the river . . . .

At bottom, of course, it will be your normal casino – squalid, crime-associated, and a fly-paper like attractor of money-launderers, prostitutes and drug-dealers.

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Ross Douglass, chairman of the “Sunraysia Against Casinos” action group, warns that any town giving a permit for a casino, is asking for it – money-laundering, prostitution, assaults etc. — plus the drugs.

Mildura will be no exception.

Well-known Mildura businessman, Mr Don Carrazza, owner of the land on which the casino will hopefully not be built,  has for decades made his living pushing number-one addictive drug, alcohol.

Now he wants local business to increasingly exploit those addicted to gambling.

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Mr Haddad advises the district “not to look at the negatives, but embrace the employment opportunities it will create, both during construction and ongoing, which will inject so much into Mildura’s economy . . . .”

“It will be a plus all around,” he says.

Not quite all around.

A casino might be a “plus” for some – those who exploit addicts. Perhaps, also, for vendors of hand-guns, the local sexually-transmitted diseases clinic, social workers for mums of broken families, the hospital emergency department — people like that . . . .

But a MINUS for ordinary citizens, trying to balance their budgets, to keep their kids out of trouble and to lead decent lives.

They hate the casino idea.

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There will be a public protest meeting against the proposed casino on Tuesday 6 April at 6pm at the Mildura Settlers Club.

Speakers will be: Senator Nick Xenophon, Reverend Tim Costello and Mr Paul Bendat.