Did you love the opening and closing ceremonies of the London Olympics? I did. Did you laugh at the way the Poms sent themselves up at every opportunity and did it with such lavish panache? I did. Did you wonder where they got the tens of millions to pay for this extravagant pageant? I did.
Do you know where they got that bottomless pool of arts funding? The National Lottery.
That's right. All of that money, plus most of their film, music, visual and performing arts funding comes from mums', dads', and young people's spending on the vilest, most pointless waste of hard earned cash: the national lottery. According to British law; Film, music, visual and performing arts (and sport) are deemed 'good causes'.
The distribution of money to 'good causes' is not the responsibility of the operator (Camelot). It is the responsibility of The National Lottery Distribution Fund (NLDF), administered by the government Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Currently 18% each is given to arts, sports and heritage via government agencies and the remaining 46% is given to charitable, health, education and environment causes by the Big Lottery Fund.
I hate gambling. I think it destroys families, lives and dreams. It seduces people who have no idea of how to manage their world with promises that if they are LUCKY they will have the solution to all of their problems. They will be able to live like millionaires, take endless holidays, give up work (if they are employed) and pay off their accumulated gambling debts - maybe even give some away. It encourages people to think that wealth (no matter how it is gained) is the solution to every problem imaginable. What bollocks - to use a Pommie expression.
However, what happens in the Land of Oz in this scenario?
Instead of lotteries run by the Australian government with a mandate to share the spoils with those areas that are 'not economically sustainable' but 'important to the cultural well being of the nation', we have given control of this appalling but lucrative cash cow/national addiction/destroyer of lives to people who have no moral compass or motivation other than to screw the community and 'keep the shareholders happy'. People like James Packer, Lloyd Williams ands Len Ainsworth.
Only this week, I read with disbelief how Tattslotto will sue the Victorian Government for almost a billion dollars because Ted has been a little negative about reissuing licences to allow Tattslotto to continue to fleece hard working Victorians of millions of dollars. Tattslotto even threatened to take their operation interstate thereby decreasing the number of Victorian jobs. I can feel my prohibitionist side coming on.
This single but epic blunder has destroyed our cultural potential like no other. The very people who own and support the gambling cash cow are the people that white-ant any cultural initiative that hasn't sold its soul to the man. They are the people that say our orchestras, opera and arts schools are too expensive to maintain. They are the people that pay big bucks to high profile artists for corporate arse licking but are not there a few years later when they have ceased to be flavour, colour or song of the month or if they are asked to fund arts education and cultural development.
Until governments wrest control of the gambling profits so that they can be spent on Australian culture instead of Asian casino expansion, our arts and culture will remain ravaged, denigrated, superficial, marginalised and parochial.
Australia - the 'Lucky' country? I don't think so.
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