Wednesday, 24 February 2021, 10:36 am
A long overdue and simple alternative to pokie funding is
getting the thumbs up from the Problem Gambling
Foundation.
The new initiative called CommUnity,
launches on 17 March and is designed to connect shoppers,
merchants and community groups in a way that will put money
back into local communities.
Problem Gambling
Foundation Director of Communications, Andree Froude, says
it is great to see a fundraising initiative that doesn’t
rely on people in some of our poorest communities putting
money into pokie machines.
“We’ve advocated for
years to end the community sector’s reliance on funding
from pokie machines, and this is certainly a step in the
Popular Kiwi band Six60 have been criticised over their association with Lotto promotional material.
Photo: Supplied
In a statement, Lotto NZ said there had been a mutual decision made with the band to remove the tickets from sale following the negative feedback, and it offered an apology.
Problem Gambling Foundation spokesperson Andree Froude told RNZ the promotion risked normalising gambling to young fans. They re seeing their favourite band on a gambling product, which not only serves to normalise gambling, but could encourage them to buy the product. We need to also think about where the money is coming from. it is often the vulnerable who are impacted the most.