Refusing gambling money will pay off for mission

The leadership shown by the Christchurch Methodist Mission in refusing to seek further funding from the casino will pay off in the long term says the Problem Gambling Foundation.

CEO John Stansfield says the mission is following in a long tradition of social organisations that work with the poor taking a moral stand around financial matters.

He says that although organisations taking a principled stand on gambling funding might have short term financial problems in the longer term it made them more sustainable.

"They can look the world in the eye and say that they are an ethical organisation and that their actions reflect their values," he says.

"This makes them attractive to genuine philanthropists.

"The mission seems to understand that you cannot do good work on the backs of the vulnerable

"Life is not a financial balance sheet where you can set pain and harm against charity and say they cancel each other out.

Mr Stansfield says it is time for all stakeholders in the gambling industry to look at the ethics of their operations.

"The gambling industry is deliberately causing harm to real people. There is no moral justification for this, and there is no way you can compensate for it by making charitable donations.

"The only ethical way to put things right is to stop doing the harm."

Mr Stansfield says that gambling grants to charities is a failed experiment in community funding which places community and sporting organisations in moral jeopardy and threatens their independence.

"It's not even effective financially," he says.

"Only one dollar in three is returned to the community, and that is just as likely to become a subsidy for racing or rugby in a wealthy area as it is to be used to benefit the community it was taken from."