 |
| NEWS & VIEWS |
To print this page, we recommend you CLICK HERE to go to TEXT ONLY format. vol, 8
no. 49
|
| |||
|
The group is lobbying against plans to increase the number of New Zealand casinos from two to six, and has become a patron of the Gambling Responsibility Trust. With Anglican Bishop Thomas Brown, Cardinal Williams tried to persuade a parliamentary committee to hear American anti-casino campaigner Rev. Tom Grey when it was considering casino control legislation, but the three men were denied entry to the committee room. Cardinal Williams also asked all clergy in the Archdiocese of Wellington to alert their people to the threat of the proliferation of casinos and encourage them to ask their members of Parliament to support a retrospective moratorium on the establishment of casinos. "It is becoming increasingly obvious that it is in the government's interest -- but not in the interest of the people it governs -- to actively promote gambling," the cardinal said. Although extensive research had yet to be carried out, he added, "the correlation of casino gambling with addiction, family violence, suicide, and bankruptcy is fast emerging".
Acknowledgment:  To subscribe to Catholic World News Service, available daily by e-mail, click the CWN icon to the right.
|
