Tasmanian activist body under fire over game developer donations

The Tasmanian activist organisation Get Up!, which encourages the public to use its facilities to draw attention and protest on a multitude of current issues, was itself under attack this week by the publication International.to over the origin of A$ 117,000 in donations from an individual associated with online games development.

The Financial Review reports that Get Up! has rejected the criticism, saying that it will continue to accept donations from Roger Allen, reportedly a major investor in the online gambling games developer NextGen.

International.to accused Get Up! of being “brazenly conflicted” by accepting such donations whilst at the same time campaigning against poker machine owners.

The publication described NextGen as a “massively profitable” developer of online poker and slot machine games, and claimed that Allen was Get Up’s! largest single donor over the past two years.

“NextGen created an online poker machine game called Doctor Love with which a Melbourne mother lost $7.8 million of her employer’s money playing,” the publication alleged, adding that GetUp has run a high profile campaign against Woolworths and Coles to restrict their poker machine operations.

“If GetUp! had any real principles it would return the $117,000 it has already taken from Mr Allen and apologise to its membership for its double standards,” the publication thundered. “GetUp! is full of sanctimony about problem gambling, while obviously happy to benefit from its proceeds.”

Get Up! has apparently undertaken to conduct a review of its donation process.