The ACT Trades and Labour Council (TLC) narrowly rejected a report that opposed the introduction of poker machines in the ACT, The Canberra Times reported on this day in 1973.
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The report was prepared by a TLC subcommittee tasked with examining the potential impact of poker machines on workers and their families.
Despite the subcommittee's recommendation against introducing the machines, stating that it represented the interests of working people, the Council voted against adopting the report.
The report presented gambling statistics from all Australian states, indicating that the amount of money lost on poker machines had surged by more than 250%, reaching $253 million between 1967-68 and 1971-72. This equated to more than $60 per person in NSW.
Also making news on this day, nine South Pacific nations, including Australia, condemned French nuclear testing in the Pacific.
The South Pacific Forum accused France of "deplorable indifference" to their future well-being.
The forum "expressed their determination to use all proper and practical means" to stop future tests.
