Following our January 30 blog complaining about children not being banned from entering poker machine venues, a comment has been received from the Victorian Minister for Gambling Gaming.

In part, it reads:

Dear Mr Jago,

I share your concern that minors in Victoria not be allowed or encouraged to use electronic gaming machines . . . .

This Government recently made significant changes to the law relating to gambling by minors . . . .

We have increased the penalties that apply to offences relating to minors; a maximum penalty of 120 penalty units (over $13,500) will now apply . . . .

While it is important to uphold the laws that protect minors, it is also essential to recognise that clubs, hotels and the casino offer valuable non-gambling services . . . .

Prohibiting minors altogether from these venues would deny young people and families the opportunity to take advantage of the wealth of community services and facilities available.

HON TONY ROBINSON, MINISTER FOR GAMING (5/2/2010)

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So his answer to our question — will something be done to keep children out of pokies venues to prevent their learning to link gambling with having a good time? — is No.

A skeptic might wonder whether his government needs gambling to continue at its present rate so they can keep cashing in, tax-wise, at the present rate.

And whether big-time promoters of gambling machines contribute to the political party to which Mr Robinson belongs. (If they don’t, somebody please tell me — and also tell how they can be sure.)

* * *

This blog has pointed out before, not only how shameful is the government’s position on gambling, but how the Church’s position is also unsatisfactory — Sydney’s Liverpool Catholic Club and the Campbelltown Catholic Club, for example, recently seeking approval to install more poker machines.

Local Catholic schools also all seem hooked on using Bingo and similar to help stay afloat.

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British magazine “Focus” calls itself “a magazine of science, technology and the future”.

Its latest edition carries an article on whether Nature (would that be God?) has “programmed” mankind to be sinful.

Entitled, “Born to sin: Why nature wants you to be bad”, the item talks about parts of the brain which supposedly “wire” human beings to commit the seven deadly sins (wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony).

It then identifies Australia as the world’s most sinful nation — its worst sin being envy.

Nonsense, you might say. What about nations which are waging civil wars and letting millions starve while others are affluent?

* * *

Or is the article more perceptive and insightful that we care to admit?

Are Australians so hypocritical as to avoid the visible sins of killing other adults and excessive material inequalities, while harbouring, at the centre of our souls, total contempt for God — and for anything else but our whims and arrogances?

Many Australians will possibly further trivialise and animalise themselves by treating this whole question as a joke.

For example, Father Bob Maguire, described by Cathnews Online as “a popular Melbourne priest”, saying that Australians had their vices, but were also very virtuous.

“I think the people who did this survey are just jealous of we Aussies, and rightly so,” he said. “Australians like to indulge and enjoy the good things in life . . .”  

 You can imagine the rest.

* * *

The other day, South Australian state government treasurer, Kevin Foley, told the media that he had “always been a liberal . . . progressive about poker machines and gambling”.

He called poker machines “an activity that brings enjoyment to many, many people” — although he conceded that “there are some who clearly have trouble with their gambling addiction.”

He dismissed them, however, saying, “There are services to help them”.

But he knows, and we all know, that such “help” is too little too late.

Did you check under your Christmas tree? Was there even one gift there not “Made in China”?

Yes, China is important economically — and ideologically.  China’s contempt for human life and for Christian morality is unequalled worldwide.

15,000 Chinese are executed every year — mainly from religious minorities — many such corpses being harvested for transplantable organs. 

China’s “justice” system is an outrage.  From 1998 to 2002 the rate of not-guilty verdicts was under one percent.

Some prominent Australians (Julian Burnside QC, Peter Westmore, John Xiao etc.) try to publicise such facts, but our corporate/media dictators want them hidden.

* * *

The international community, instead of threatening China with sanctions, rewarded them with the 2008 Olympics.

Chinese Christians were warned not to organise public worship during the Games. However the Feast of the Assumption (for Catholics, a holy day of obligation) fell on August 15^th.

So about 1000 Catholics attended a Mass celebrated by Bishop Jia Zhiguo — and the bishop was locked up. Bishop Jia (now 73) has, so far, spent 15 years of his life in prison.

The Australian media took a big interest in who won gold medals for running, throwing things, jumping etc. – but none in who was risking life and health for the Faith.

* * *

It’s something new for the overseeing authority of Australia’s biggest trading partner to be a Communist Party. Opposition finance spokesman, Barnaby Joyce, has expressed misgivings. But Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, condemned him for “erratic and irresponsible comments”.

China’s government is contemptuous of Australia — arresting Australian mining executive, Stern Hu, campaigning to stop Australia giving a visa to Uighur leader, Rebiya Kadeer, and — most frighteningly — mobilising Chinese students in Australia for political purposes during the Olympic torch relay.

* * *

Experts warn that the price of upsetting China would be a lowering of Australia’s “living standards”, making it unlikely that either Liberals or Labor will seriously oppose Chinese takeovers.

The Nationals might.

The Church should perhaps be doing something.

No, the Christmas Season isn’t over.

 ADVENT — the four week preparation-period leading up to December 25 — is over.

 CHRISTMAS — the 40-day season celebrating Christ’s birth, lasting until February 2 (the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary) — has just begun.

* * *

 Some shopkeepers and others, disciples of materialism, may on December 26, start switching everything off.

 For believers, however, Christmas goes on, full tilt, for another 40 days.

 During those days Christmas Carols should be sung.

* * *

 Right through January, until February 2, let’s keep wishing each other a “Happy  and a Holy Christmas!”

Tiger Woods is the world’s best golf player.

In recent years he was receiving about  $100 million a year from companies using him in their advertisements — Gillette, Pepsi, Nike, Electronic Arts, AT&T, Accenture, Upper Deck and others.

Now these companies are dumping him, since it became known that TW has been (apparently) unfaithful to his wife.

These companies have no interest in the morals of celebrities. They are interested in profits. But they ask themselves, “Do ordinary purchasers of razor blades or flavoured water really care enough about faithfulness in marriage to switch brands because Mr Woods’ name is now mud?”

Perhaps they do.

* * *

Surveys suggest that 78 percent of men and 84 percent of woman believe marital infidelity to be “always wrong”. (Professor Bradford Wilcox, University of Virginia)

Why is it wrong?

They say men are like mountain-climbers who enjoy scaling a peak but, on reaching the top, get bored and look around for something else to climb? Chasing women is fun. What about spending the rest of your life with the one who has kindly taken you on?

Is this really the key question? Is marriage basically about who can or should have sex with whom?

It is not.

* * *

That’s where the Catholic understanding of marriage is so different from others.

Or it was.

It was until the Second Vatican Council – after which the Church’s teaching was turned upside down so that the younger generations (all Catholics aged now less than about 50) have been taught a worldly and compromised substitute for the supernatural, sacramental, God-centred understanding of marriage which is/was truly Catholic.

More on this subject tomorrow. If I am still alive tomorrow to write it.

Between 2003 and 2006, thousands of criminal offences were committed at the Crown Casino in Melbourne, capital of the Australian state of Victoria.

A recent police report quotes, not only money-laundering and prostitution, but also 445 assaults, two kidnappings, eight sex offences, 32 cases of handling stolen goods, 13 weapons offences and 344 thefts from cars. (The Age, 8/12/2009)

* * *

Meanwhile the rural city of Mildura, 500km north of Melbourne, is widely tipped as a possible site for a second casino in Victoria.

Ross Douglass, chairman of local protest group, Sunraysia Against Casinos, warns Mildura’s Rural City Council, that Victoria’s State government cares nothing about such crime. (Press release, 8/12/2009)

This week, the Victorian Parliament is expected to pass laws allowing Crown Casino to expand its number of table games by 43 percent.

Any town giving a permit for a casino, argues Mr Douglass, is asking for trouble — money-laundering, prostitution, assaults, kidnappings, sex offences, handling of stolen goods and thefts from cars.

If a fool is somebody who refuses to learn from the mistakes of others, what about a town which, instead of learning from what Melbourne has done to itself, inflicts increasing crime on its own neighbourhood where families are trying to live decent lives?

* * *

Meanwhile the Mayor of Mildura, Councillor G. Milne, has told fellow-councillors that they are legally bound to refrain from publicly speaking against the casino proposal. “The law is the law,” he told a local newspaper.

In fact, there is no such law.

* * *

Meanwhile, again, Councillor Milne has not objected when his CEO, paid to be unbiased, has told the local TV that a Casino would fit in perfectly with the city’s “master-plan”.

Money speaks all languages, doesn’t it?