Sydney - Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe on Wednesday joined a campaign against Australia's infatuation with poker machines. Crowe, part-owner of the South Sydney Rabbitohs rugby league club along with businessman Peter Holmes a Court, proposed all 160 poker machines be taken out of the clubhouse because of the damage gambling was doing to the local community.
"Russell threw down the gauntlet and said, 'Can we do this?'" Holmes a Court told local television. "It's been proven beyond reasonable doubt that poker machines cause damage in the community, and Russell said we have got to find a new business model."
The pair, who have transformed the Rabbitohs since buying the team last year, want to own the first rugby league team not dependent on the proceeds of gambling in its clubhouses.
Holmes a Court said research showed that up to three-quarters of the money gambled in low-income areas like the Rabbitohs' Redfern would come from the welfare cheques of the unemployed.
Australians are the biggest gamblers in the world with their average spending twice as high as the second-placed Americans. There are said to be 200,000 poker machines in Australia, around 20 per cent of the world's total.
The plan to rid the club of its poker machines was hailed as a breakthrough by Federal Treasurer Peter Costello.
"I think what they have announced is fantastic, and all credit to them," the country's top finance official said. "We have got enough poker machines in Australia."
Costello accused state governments of coming to depend on gambling revenue while passing the problem of gambling addiction to the federal government.
"You might be taking more tax out of them at a state level, but we have got to pick them up and look after them after they have lost their houses and incomes," Costello said.
