Rimmington & Rates Control interview dreams & come out with "facts"!

  In an astounding claim in the Waikato Times today, former Mare Russ ('Russ-Russ') Rimmington claimed he had met Roger and Jane Hennebry on "fight against the Hamilton Casino" - a claim that is impossible, unless he had invented a time travel machine.

  While Rimmington (nicknamed 'Russ-Russ' after flirting with the idea of importing pandas from China at the cost to ratepayers of several million dollars) did indeed himself jump on the 1998 anti-casino bandwagon after he saw the huge public opposition being organised against it, Roger & Jane were never seen in that campaign.

  As the publicity officer, and a founding member of the Casino Opposition Action Committee, I never even met the pair until mid-2001, when Roger decided he could save the city by being elected to Council, and by which time the Casino was already a reality.

  Of course, Russ-Russ has often been economical with the facts, or conveniently overlooked the inconvenient ones; in fact the very same Hennebrys that he is now so enamoured of were great supporters of his nemesis, the chaotic Mayor David Braithwaite, after Braithwaite dumped Rimmington in the 2001 elections.

  Whether Russ-Russ sticks with the Rates Control group if he is elected to EW is also another matter - as was put to him a couple of months ago, he is likely to quickly distance himself from that negative mob if his dream of a Chairmanship at EW requires the support of the majority of more normal members.

  Ah well, we all know politics makes strange bedfellows, and while talking about beds, it would be nice if the Times checked they were getting facts, not dreams, in their interviews!

Sky City’s onto a winner: ban them and keep their money!

Sky City’s refusal to pay out $60,000 in gambling table winnings to Sothea Sinn last week puts a new twist on the old saying: ‘those who have the gold make the rules’, according to gambling issues lobby group, GamblingWatch.

“In this case, you could say ‘those who make the rules keep the gold’,” said Dave Macpherson, the group’s Co-ordinator.

“Most Kiwis consider it appalling that a massive gambling den like Auckland’s Sky City casino has refused to either pay out Mr Sinn his winnings, or even to refund him the $20,000 he bet at the casino to get those winnings.”

“If it was right to ban Mr Sinn from the Casino many years ago because of his problem gambling – and we agree with that process - then they should never have let him back in the first place.”

“If they let him in, and by all accounts let him gamble for several hours, then they should pay him what he won.”

“If the security system of the biggest gambling establishment in the country cannot detect a photographed banned person, then they should not profit from their failure,” said Mr Macpherson.

Mr Macpherson pointed out that Sky City had “a history of failures in the security arena” with “instances of gang-related crime, money-laundering & fraud all too prevalent” This is yet another case of an extremely profitable gambling business taking all care and no responsibility.”

“It is good that the Department of Internal Affairs is now investigating the Sky City actions (and I hope, inactions) – I suggest that they should be made to do the following:
• Pay back Mr Sinn the $20,000 he went into the Casino with
• Pay the $60,000 he ‘won’ to local problem gambling treatment providers
• Replace their security systems with digital photographic recognition systems that signal banned gamblers entering their doors – not just after they win large jackpots!

Valentines back-down a credit to Hamilton community

The stupid decision by Valentines restaurant in Hamilton, and the Grassroots Pokie Trust, to try and place 9 pokie machines in the 'family' restaurant, has thankfully been taken off the agenda - for now.

After a public outcry, and a very good Waikato Times article, Valentines saw they were on a hiding to nothing and wisely pulled their head in.

They lamely claimed they had just discovered they didn't have room to fit the pokies in - Yeah, right! And they didn't check this sort of thing first? I don't think so!

The truth is that they wanted to get some extra income from the pokie 'site rentals' to bolster their sagging financial fortunes, and they were advised of a loophole that might allow the machines by their experienced hired gun lawyer Jarrod True, who fronts pokie applications and pokie rule liberalisation around the country.

And Hamilton City Council's planners didn't help things by stuffing up the public application/submission process - first advertising it under a completely incorrect section of the law, then getting the submisssion closing date wrong!

Thanks to Aaron Woolley (Like Minds, Like Mine) and the Problerm Gambling Foundation for the great work they did to alert the community.

Sky City to give half its profit increase to community & sports groups (Yeah, right!)

Sky City’s $2.5 million Hamilton Casino profit increase in the year just completed has given rise to a call from a gambling issues lobby group for the community to “get a significant share of the windfall.”

GamblingWatch co-ordinator Dave Macpherson said the 7% local profit increase “ought to generate considerable extra support for local community and sporting groups who are really feeling the pinch of the economic recession – but knowing Sky City, it probably won’t help them beyond the cost of a new car if they’re lucky!”

“A reasonable person might think that Sky City could afford to give half is extra gambling profits back to the community from which the money had been earned,” he said.

“Think what the Waikato region could do with an extra $1.25M in the next year – maybe doubling the food supplied through every foodbank in the region, or keeping the costs of gym and field hire at the 2008 levels for all kids sports teams, so more youngsters could afford to play sport, meeting the Government’s plans to increase sporting participation among the young?”

Mr Macpherson pointed out that Sky City’s licence only required it to give a “miniscule proportion” of its $38.9M Hamilton profit back to the community – somewhere between two and three hundred thousand dollars per year.

“This amount is less than the grants going to the community from one single pokie bar in the same city.”

“We would like to think that Sky City would see it had a responsibility to significantly support the community when it was doing well – but we are not holding our breath!”

“However, in the interests of giving everyone the benefit of the doubt, I challenge Sky City management to focus on giving, rather than profiting, during this economic recession.”

Mr Macpherson said the same calls applied to all other Sky City-controlled casinos around New Zealand – In Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin and Queenstown.

“Their 13% group profit increase to $115.3 million gives Sky City a perfect chance to show what a good corporate citizen they are in several parts of the country.”