The greatest spiritual challenge Melbourne has faced is the recently opened Crown Casino. It has deceived us by the following myths.

The orgy of free publicity the Crown Casino has attracted these past few weeks should cause us to pause and reflect. We are celebrating an institution that our parents and grandparents regarded as a vice. The value shifts that have occurred in such a short space of time are simply breathtaking.

This casino is an unprecedented social experiment breaking like waves on our children. It is as if the whole of our culture has been caught by a rip and carried hundreds of metres down the beach without even recognising what has happened. Our civic fathers and mothers would shake their heads in disbelief at our ‘casino culture.’

What are the myths that have made such a cultural transition possible?

1. ‘That the people of Melbourne wanted a casino’

There was no casino lobby group in existence or public agitation for a casino. Unlike lobby groups for a public library or the legalising of marijuana or countless other causes, the casino was not born out of public demand. Rather, it was a powerful convergence of the financial interests of the gambling industry and the financial plight of the [former] Kirner Labor State government.

The present State government has certainly won with huge gambling tax windfalls which constitute the third largest source of government revenue. Government dependency on gambling (now 15 percent of all revenue) is graphically illustrated by the fact that the Minister for Finance is also the Minister for Gambling.

2. ‘That the Casino will bring economic revitalisation and jobs’

Certainly, the construction of the casino and its early days have brought extra jobs, but the experience in the United States is sobering. Atlantic City, for example, saw casinos gross a total over US$33 billion from their introduction in 1978 until 1993 – an amount equivalent to a million dollars for every man, woman and child in that city.

However, in the same period there was a loss of 40 percent of the city’s independent restaurants. Only four years after the introduction of the casinos in Atlantic City, a third of the city’s retail businesses had closed. Atlantic City’s unemployment rate was 30 percent higher than the State average, and by 1993 it was double the State average.

The crime rate in Atlantic City tripled. Thanks to the Victorian Break Even figures, we now know that 25 percent of gambling addicts in Melbourne finance their habit from crime.

In Atlantic City the expansion of casinos had a drastic effect on real estate values, creating a windfall for some property owners but serious problems for many others. Crown Casino, which has a floor space five times larger than that of the largest shopping centre in Australia, will create

similar economic imbalances. The Lord Mayor of Melbourne, Cr Ivan Deveson, has warned that parts of Melbourne will economically die because of Crown’s dominance.

3. ‘That the government can both promote and at the same time regulate gambling’

Because of its over-reliance on the gambling dollar, the government has failed badly in its regulation of gambling. As a monopoly, Crown Casino has a privileged place in society whereas every other business has to compete. Why does a monopoly have to be so aggressively advertised?

Notwithstanding the millions it spends on self-promotion, it has had the Premier of Victoria, Jeff Kennett, describe it as a ‘beacon of hope’ (1993) and as the ‘spirit of Victoria’ (1994). He has come to its aid whenever called upon. As Crown’s spokesperson, Gary O’Neill, said recently, "It’s always been Kennett’s show" (Herald/Sun, April 25, 1997).

The government failed to charge Crown Casino an extra $174 million for its additional gambling tables. It allowed Crown to put its logo on our street signs in defiance of the Road Safety Traffic Regulations, and to have 52 bright blue signs around Melbourne, again in defiance of the same regulations.

The government discontinued gambling harm minimisation advertisements on television which were so effective 12 months ago. Its only response to criticism from the Victorian Council for Problem Gambling that made those advertisements has been to defend them.

The Minister for Finance dissolved his advisory committee on problem gambling when churches insisted on their right to nominate their own representative to it. Far from properly regulating gaming and authorising a sustained advertising campaign such as the drink-driving advertisements, the Victorian government has proved to be the ‘biggest gambling addict’ in the State. There is a sinister new meaning to the term, ‘Minister of the Crown.’

4. ‘That Crown Casino is a family entertainment complex’

The beloved defence of the Premier is that gambling is entertainment and a matter of consumer choice. As an ex-advertising man, he knows that when advertisers like Crown are spending $20 million a year on promotion they are not wasting their money. They are manufacturing and manipulating choice. And their message is targeted at Victorians rather than overseas high rollers, as 85 percent of visitors to Crown are local people.

Five years ago, Victorians spent only $1 in $75 of income on gambling. Now, as the highest gambling state of Australia, Victorians spend $1 of every $30 on gambling. Every welfare agency has seen a stunning rise in gambling related poverty and gambling addiction. Broken marriages, suicide and a huge increase in the number of pawn brokers are its legacy.

Literally, all cultural roads now lead to Crown Casino. The kids’ football heroes are paid appearance money to be there. Crown’s niche shops, its fifteen 24-hour cinemas, its 40 restaurants and its host of virtual reality games completely blur the boundaries between family entertainment and gaming.

The South Eastern Freeway runs into Crown’s carpark (the biggest in the southern hemisphere). And there is a special entrance from the new City Link Freeway into Crown. Crown openly admits that it had successfully cornered the Asian and working class market in its temporary casino. But the new casino (now the ‘Crown Entertainment Complex’ with the nasty word ‘casino’ dropped) is to seduce the Anglo-Saxon middle classes by offering family entertainment. Although the gambling facilities at Crown are only 5 percent of its total floor space, they will earn 81 percent of the $1.3 billion Crown will make next year.

In the minds of the next generation, to go to the Casino is synonymous with ful and with ease and cheapness of parking. This will feed crown with ever new generations of gamblers.

Please understand that with Crown spending $60 million on its opening night on 8 May 1997 (which happened to be Ascension Day in the Church calendar), it will attempt to buy our cultural allegiance and it must be spiritually and prayerfully resisted. Indeed, it has become Melbourne’s example of a power and principality or ‘spiritual wickedness in high places.’ Truly, the question of rival crowns and rival sovereign Lords over our city has never been more starkly contrasted.

[Rev. Tim Costello is Minister of Collins St Baptist Church in central Melbourne, Australia, Mayor of St Kilda and spokesperson for the Interchurch Gambling Task Force. His brother Peter is Australia’s Federal Treasurer. This article first appeared in Working Together Issue 2, 1997. Used by permission. For more information on gambling-related issues contact Tim Costello on (03) 9650 1180 or Kris Aquilina on 0411 857 803, or email ]