For better or worse?

 While searching for something else today I came across the printed copy of the first article I ever wrote that received a payment: a huge payment of $25. Note the slight formal tone – it was published in the Dunedin Star Midweek’s Soap Box column, on July 27th, 1988. For the sake of history, I'm adding it to my blog, outdated and all as it may be...

When it comes to the matter of a casino in Dunedin, it is difficult not to let my bias run riot. However, to be fair, it is necessary to look at the subject objectively. Some people believe it would be the salvation of our struggling tourist industry. Others see it only in terms of the havoc it could wreak on our society. Are there any good sides to casinos?

The president of the Tourist Industry Federation, Mr Barry Thomas, claims that tourists require entertainment at night, after having viewed our magnificent scenery during the day. He says casinos provide this. obviously, as a city that expects tourists to visit we have to provide an all-round experience for them. are the people who come to see our scenery in fact the same kind of tourists who want to spend time and lots of money in a casino. Can we cater for both?

Certainly I know from experience that overseas visitors expect far more at any tourist place they go to. They are used to souvenir shops, eating places, and even some kind of alternative entertainment. Do we need to concentrate more on this side and less on adding to the attractions we already have? Can we make our present attractions really viable?

The Tasmanian experience seems to crop up again and again in arguments about casinos. (In fact, there are two casinos on the island, one in Hobart and another in Launceston. There are also casinos in Adelaide, Darwin, Perth, Alice Springs and the Gold Coast.)

We hear of the ‘exemplary organisation and behaviour’ witnessed there. certainly that seems to be a plus. In fact, for those businessmen tendering for the latest casino development in Australia, there has already been some upset. Any hint of wrongdoing in the past life of the company has been investigated.

That seems good. I say ‘seems’ because we would have to assume that our own council, or the Government, was prepared to go to the same lengths.

Now that is fine at the outset. There may be no obvious crime in the running of the casino, but what about ‘hidden’ crimes? What about crimes committed by those who are unable to control their gambling addiction? No specific record is kept of this problem area, but it doesn’t take much imagination to realise that many people are affected in a direct and indirect way by the problem.

We have been told that the casino in Dunedin would produce 500 jobs. That sounds excellent. I don’t know of any other industry which has been set up of late which could promise so much. However, this assumes that the tourists will come, and bring their largesse with them. perhaps they will, if Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch don’t all decide to get in on the act as well.

Are we capable of providing the kind of service that these big spenders insist on- or at least are used to?

I remember stopping over in Los Angeles one night, and having ‘breakfast’ at some strange time of the morning – about 3 am, I think. The waitress who served us was as bright and pleasant at the time of day as one could wish. Doe he have that attitude to service here in Dunedin? We have tended to be so egalitarian in our approach to each other that we find it difficult to give service any longer. The evidence is in most of our shops.  

We would have to work hard at our attitudes to provide the kind of service overseas guests expect – even when they are rude with it!

So much for the good points. Unfortunately it seems to me that the bad points far outweigh the good. I’ve already alluded to the addictive aspect of casinos. One writer even suggests that pensioners and beneficiaries might leave their Housie behind and take up ‘something more sophisticated.’ I can see a lot of hard-up people in these categories, if that’s the case.

Even if the casino were to provide video games at 20c, 50c or more, as they do in Australia, it isn’t difficult to see the speed with which lots of money would go down the drain.

One Australian writers says: ‘The only consistent winners in Australian gambling are the casinos.’ And it has been shown in psychological studies of gamblers that they are unable to appreciate the fact that they lose far more than they gain.

We see this in race-course betting in our country now, and in Lotto, and the Golden Kiwi. Another writer says that even in Australia, local residents account for a large part of casino patronage. So where is the advantage to those who live here? If we are only going to be putting more of our money into someone else’s pockets what benefit is that to Dunedin?

Social service agencies in Australia generally agree that casinos only add to the problems of addicts and their families. Again, in the long run, it is the local who pays, either through his taxes, or into some kind of charity.

Big businessmen and investors would perhaps feel that a casino and its subsidiaries would be worth putting their money into. But the Australian Business Journal actually recommends the reverse. They say that the shareholding returns are not very high, and very inconsistent.

Finally what effect would it have on the quality of life in Dunedin? Do we really want a city that goes ahead at any cost? Do we want a city where the high-life is the norm, and where the gap between the rich and the poor gets greater each year?

We already have a much more stable ‘tourist’ population in the city, for several months of the year. The accompanying industry provides employment for a considerable number of people. I’m speaking of the University. Is Otago University as well-known as Cambridge or Oxford? What would it take to make it so? And wouldn’t the side-effects be far more beneficial socially than a business that doesn’t give tuppence of the victims?

The buildings that contain the Southern Cross Hotel
and Casino

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The Casino came, and stayed, so presumably it's profitable for someone. Along with the Scenic Hotel Southern Cross it stretches across three buildings. The tallest of these is the former State Insurance Company building, which was relatively new when I got my first adult job there. The 'State' occupied almost the entire six storeys. Today all its work is done online.