IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v110y2012i3p259-268.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Paternalism and the Pokies: Unjustified State Interference or Justifiable Intervention?

Author

Listed:
  • Elizabeth Prior Jonson
  • Margaret Lindorff
  • Linda McGuire

Abstract

The Australian Productivity Commission and a Joint Select Committee on Gambling Reform have recommended implementation of a mandatory pre-commitment system for electronic gambling. Organizations associated with the gambling industry have protested that such interventions reduce individual rights, and will cause a reduction in revenue which will cost jobs and reduce gaming venue support for local communities. This article is not concerned with the design details or the evidence base of the proposed scheme, but rather with the fundamental criticism that a mandatory pre-commitment policy is an unacceptable interference with the liberty of the individual, and of organizations. It is argued that the concept of paternalism is a useful lens with which to study the interactions between business and society on this issue. It is contended that the benefits of a pre-commitment system to problem gamblers and society are socially and economically significant, and the cost to recreational gamblers, particularly the cost in terms of interference with the liberty of the individual, is minimal. Pre-commitment also requires gambling businesses to act in a more socially responsible manner. It is concluded that the proposed legislation constitutes a paternalistic intervention by government on the interaction between business and society, and that this is justified. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012

Suggested Citation

  • Elizabeth Prior Jonson & Margaret Lindorff & Linda McGuire, 2012. "Paternalism and the Pokies: Unjustified State Interference or Justifiable Intervention?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 110(3), pages 259-268, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:110:y:2012:i:3:p:259-268
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-011-1152-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10551-011-1152-y
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-011-1152-y?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Leonard, Thomas C. & Goldfarb, Robert S. & Suranovic, Steven M., 2000. "New on Paternalism and Public Policy," Economics and Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(2), pages 323-331, October.
    2. New, Bill, 1999. "Paternalism and Public Policy," Economics and Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(1), pages 63-83, April.
    3. John Boatright, 2009. "Rent Seeking in a Market with Morality: Solving a Puzzle About Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 88(4), pages 541-552, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Adrian Park & Andrew Harris & Jonathan Parke & Jane Rigbye & Alex Blaszczynski, 2014. "Facilitating Awareness And Informed Choice In Gambling," Journal of Gambling Business and Economics, University of Buckingham Press, vol. 8(3), pages 6-20.
    2. Rohan Miller & Grant Michelson, 2013. "Fixing the Game? Legitimacy, Morality Policy and Research in Gambling," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 116(3), pages 601-614, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Robert Goldfarb & Thomas Leonard & Steven Suranovic, 2001. "Are rival theories of smoking underdetermined?," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(2), pages 229-251.
    2. Hae Young Lee, 2013. "A Policy Paradox from Paternalism to Populism: The Case of Foot-and-Mouth Disease in South Korea," International Review of Public Administration, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(3), pages 233-256, December.
    3. Julian Le Grand, 2003. "Individual Choice and Social Exclusion," CASE Papers 075, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    4. Roberto Fumagalli, 2016. "Decision sciences and the new case for paternalism: three welfare-related justificatory challenges," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 47(2), pages 459-480, August.
    5. Nicholas Barr & Peter Diamond, 2006. "The Economics of Pensions," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 22(1), pages 15-39, Spring.
    6. Adrian Park & Andrew Harris & Jonathan Parke & Jane Rigbye & Alex Blaszczynski, 2014. "Facilitating Awareness And Informed Choice In Gambling," Journal of Gambling Business and Economics, University of Buckingham Press, vol. 8(3), pages 6-20.
    7. Mobin Fatma & Imran Khan, 2023. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Brand Advocacy among Consumers: The Mediating Role of Brand Trust," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-10, February.
    8. Steven M. Suranovic, 2005. "An Economic Model of Youth Smoking: Tax and Welfare Effects," HEW 0511003, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Severine Deneulin, 2002. "Perfectionism, Paternalism and Liberalism in Sen and Nussbaum's Capability Approach," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(4), pages 497-518.
    10. Calcott, Paul, 2004. "Government warnings and the information provided by safety regulation," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 71-88, March.
    11. Thomas Leonard, 2008. "Richard H. Thaler, Cass R. Sunstein, Nudge: Improving decisions about health, wealth, and happiness," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 356-360, December.
    12. Le Grand, Julian, 2003. "Individual choice and social exclusion," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 4645, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    13. Zhang, Chao & Guan, Jiancheng, 2021. "Returnee policies in China: Does a strategy of alleviating the financing difficulty of returnee firms promote innovation?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    14. R. W. Major & Madina Rival, 2012. "From informal practices to formal conduct: Which ethical practices and issues for French lobbying consulting?," Working Papers halshs-00709380, HAL.
    15. Mann, Stefan, 2005. "Trade Restrictions on Farmland - a Utilitarian Analysis of Paternalistic Laws," Working Papers 30709, Agroscope Reckenholz Tanikon (ART).
    16. Jolad, Shivakumar & Ravi, Chaitanya, 2021. "Addressing the dilemma of India’s state dependency on Alcohol: ‘New-Soft’ Paternalism approach," SocArXiv 7pnh5, Center for Open Science.
    17. Hanson, Robin, 2003. "Warning labels as cheap-talk: why regulators ban drugs," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(9-10), pages 2013-2029, September.
    18. Peter Jaworski, 2014. "An Absurd Tax on our Fellow Citizens: The Ethics of Rent Seeking in the Market Failures (or Self-Regulation) Approach," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 121(3), pages 467-476, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:110:y:2012:i:3:p:259-268. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.