Give pokies money to Lottery Board to distribute

The Herald reports:

Several charitable trusts linked to an Auckland family which distribute millions of dollars in pokie money for community events are being probed by a Government agency with “serious concerns” about where the money has gone.

Thousands of people have attended Diwali, Bollywood and other free community events organised by the South Trust, which receives hundreds of thousands of dollars a year from gaming societies. …

Two cultural events organised by the South Trust cost $85,000 and $90,000, according to the records for the 2013 financial year.

The Herald has learned that the South Trust got nearly $500,000 over two years from the Akarana Community Trust Ltd, a gaming trust set up by Mrs Kular’s brother Harjit Dheil.

In turn, Akarana is part-funded by pokie machines at bars owned by Mrs Kular’s other brother, Hardesh Dheil.

Nearly $5.5 million in pokie money has been given in the past two years to Akarana, which in turn distributes it to other charitable societies

Akarana has also given $300,000 to the Kiwi Indian Community Trust of which the Dheils’ father, Sohan Singh, is a trustee.

This is a great example of the problems with the status quo. While pokie machines are an invaluable source of revenue for many local charities, there have been numerous cases where the proceeds go to people with a conflict of interest.

Here we have a situation where one brother owns the bar, another operates the gaming trust and the trust donates the money to other charitable trusts run by their sister and father. There should be no linkages between the pokie operator, the bar and the recipient of the charitable funds.

I believe that situations like this are so common, that a massive change is needed. I’d get rid of all the individual charitable trusts associated with the pokies industry and have all funds from the pokies go to the Lotteries Board, tagged for projects and charities in the local areas the funds came from. The Lotteries Board have a long history of non conflicted decision making on distributing money from gambling to worthy causes.