PARENTS LEAVE DAUGHTER OUTSIDE CASINO

This is an absolutely disgusting story and these are the type of parents who should have written some sort of exam to see if they were worthy to become parents!

Isn't it ironic, that the people who are least equipped to be parents are the very ones that seem to have the most children! And because of the way that child abuse is spread, their children themselves will also reporduce like rabbits and compund the problem!

I agree with Govender - these parents should be banned for life!

Parents leave daughter outside casino
March 01 2007 at 11:53AM
By Rivonia Naidu

A neatly dressed eight-year-old girl left at the entrance of a Durban casino for seven hours while her parents gambled the night away, was the victim of parental abuse.This is the view of Joan van Niekerk, national co-ordinator of Childline. Van Niekerk has now called on Suncoast Casino and Entertainment World and other casinos to report the child's parents as well as the many others who treat their children in a similar manner to child welfare authorities so that their behaviour as parents can be monitored. Because of their neglect of the child, the girl's parents have been banned by Suncoast Casino from entering the casino and surrounding area for three months.


But the short ban has been criticised by Childline as not "solving anything". "This is another situation of appalling parental responsibility and boils down to child abuse and neglect. Casinos need to have a system in which if a person is banned from one casino, they are banned from all casinos. "What will now happen is that these parents will continue to gamble at other establishments and instead of taking her with them, they will either lock her up at home or leave her in a car, making her an invisible neglected child, like so many others whose parents are addicted to gambling," she said.

A concerned grandparent, Lynette Reinbach, who found the girl waiting outside Suncoast Casino at 2am on Monday said she was shocked to find "such a tiny girl all by herself". "I was leaving the casino when I noticed the girl standing by herself. I went up to her and inquired about her parents' whereabouts and she said they were gambling. She then began crying," she said. Reinbach said she immediately approached the security guards and asked them how long the child had been standing there and they said since about 7pm Sunday night. "I was horrified that they would allow this child to stand by herself for such a long time."By the time we called the security manager, her mother had arrived in a drunken state. She was rude to me and that angered me because she was the negligent one," she said.

Reinbach said: "I was so disgusted with that child's parents. They are despicable and they don't deserve to have children. The sad thing is that there are a lot of parents that do this to their children. "At that odd time, there is hardly anyone left in the complex. What if their children are kidnapped, raped or killed?" she said.

In the last two months Suncoast Casino has banned three sets of parents for neglecting their children, with last year seeing a total of 10 parents being banned. Sibaya Casino and Entertainment Kingdom's general manger Melville Vogel said while abandoning children was not a common phenomenon at their casino, regrettably incidents of that nature had occurred. In the past four months Sibaya Casino has banned two separate sets of parents. Pietermaritzburg's Golden Horse Casino's marketing manager, Trevor Taylor, said thanks to a strict security policy, they've only banned one set of parents from the casino complex last year and none this year. Suncoast Casino's marketing manager Robbie Naidoo said the eight-year-old girl was discovered by a child minder (employees of the Child Minder Programme who work from Friday to Sunday from 8pm-3am and monitor and track children who have been on the property for a long time) in the Food Court at about 11pm. "She was then handed to her elder brother. However, the child was discovered alone again by security and the child minder at about 2am. "They reacted immediately and her parents were located, interviewed by security and they were each banned for three months," he said. He said when a patron is banned for whatever time period, their picture is taken and placed on a "Wall of Banned Patrons". "Security and surveillance will closely monitor these banned patrons and if they are found on the property they will be removed.

"However, there is no register of banned patrons that gets filtered to other sister properties or external casinos. "It's the responsibility and duty of that casino to monitor their own banned patrons," said Naidoo. "Parents are advised that children should not be hanging out at late hours in the complex and if we do find children at odd hours on our property, parents will be banned," he said. Raj Govender, director of the National Council on Problem Gambling said this incident was not an isolated one. "I've been called out to many other incidents of this nature and one really has to feel for these children. Some of them need to go to school and are so tired. Parents are just irresponsible and this is child abuse," he said. He said the three-month ban on these parents was very lenient."When it comes to children's rights, there are no negotiations. These parents should have received a life ban from the casino, because what's stopping them from coming back and doing the same thing in three months' time. Casinos are just out to make money. "If they are really serious about solving this problem, they will give out a life ban and fine the parents," said Govender.

This article was originally published on page 1 of Daily News on March 01, 2007