Charities wrongly named in poll opposing cashless gambling

Prominent Australian charities have distanced themselves from a robocall survey that cast them as opponents of the New South Wales government’s plans for poker machine reform.

The charities include World Vision Australia, Oxfam Australia, and the Fred Hollows Foundation. The robocall included unconfirmed claims concerning how cashless gaming impacted society.

Towards the end of the survey, the respondents were asked to provide contact information which would then be given to “some charities we are working with”, and the charities were mentioned.

According to a spokeswoman for Oxfam Australia, the company had enlisted the aid of a marketing firm to locate new supporters; however, gambling polling was not authorised as part of the process. She reiterated the organisation’s support for government reforms that would provide protection to vulnerable individuals.

”Oxfam does not have an association with gambling lobby groups and … supports reforms that would help protect vulnerable people from losing their money to poker machines,” the spokeswoman said.

The Fred Hollows Foundation had no prior knowledge of the polling and revealed it did not endorse or support the gambling lobby. World Vision Australia was also in the dark and has firm policies concerning affiliation with organisations with ties to gambling.

As a result of the billions of dollars laundered through pokies annually, Premier Dominic Perrottet recently pledged to make poker machines in NSW cashless. A number of lobby groups have opposed the move, stating that the technology to be used was yet to be proven. There are ongoing cashless betting trials, one of which is an opt-in digital wallet trial suggested by the ClubsNSW lobby group.

The Ucomms polling platform organised and hosted the robocall, and shortly after the charities distanced themselves from the survey, the company apologised. Ucomms has no ties with the organisations or causes that employ its services, and did not mention who was behind the commissioned poll.

The survey questions were largely referred to as being biased. It claimed that pubs and clubs would have to spend millions to acquire the new technology, which would render them inadequate in supporting their respective community groups. The questions also alleged that the gaming cards would be a tool for the government to monitor the behaviour of punters.

NSW Labor leader Chris Minns was also mentioned in the robocall, as was his request that cashless gaming be further tested. A spokesperson for Minns disclosed that the opposition leader had no affiliation with the robocall.

Reverend Tim Costello, a gambling reform advocate, noted that the robocall asked questions that warped factual information concerning pokies and gambling.

Last week, James Stewart, the CEO of Ucomms, revealed that the questions concerning the charities were included under a social responsibility initiative. Upon discovering that the polls had ties with gambling, the link to the company’s CSR program was taken down to distance the charities from the topic.

Stewart is a co-founder of the Australian Polling Council, which is a joint enterprise of research firms that created a quality mark and code of conduct for polls. He disclosed that the survey was not in line with council guidelines, nor was it run or endorsed by anyone from the council.

“And me personally, I wouldn’t endorse it,” Stewart said.

Stewart sent an email to Ucomms patrons to apologise and assure them that the recent poll was not planned. He also stated that the company did not have a history of catering to gambling-related research.

Market research firm Utting Research Group was identified as the organisation behind the poll. The company is yet to say anything concerning the robocall; however, ClubNSW is part of the company’s list of clientele.

The prominent lobby group previously claimed it had nothing to do with the robocall and declined to say anything further on the matter.

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