The Devil Made me do it (and his name is clubs Australia)

News reports have claimed that problem gamblers are being targeted by organised crime to act as drug mules and to allow drugs to be grown or stored in their home.

ABC news investigations found, in a study of the parole records of Vietnamese drug offenders in Sydney’s south-west that almost three-quarters of them blame problem gambling for their crimes.

Sounds like a clear cut argument in support of Andrew Wilkie and Nick Xenophon’s  private member’s bill restricting poker machines doesn’t it?

Is there a missing connection here?

Could it be that the NSW Department of Public Prosecutions offers reduced sentences if the plea of mitigation states that the convicted drug mule has a gambling problem?  This is called the law of unintended consequences and constitutes a perverse incentive.

My question is:

“ONLY 72% claim the pokies made them do it?”

Author: Andrew G T Kirby