Many justify gambling, in particular pokie machines, by pointing out that the gaming trusts provide millions of dollars to sporting and cultural groups throughout the country. And they do, but in many ways that too is a problem we have to cope with in society.

It seems that these days cultural, sporting and dare I say it, local authorities seem hell bent on building edifices and empires and their plans usually depend on some funding from gaming trusts.

When I was a kid, I used to love going to working bees with my father. He was always involved in some community project and most of these were funded by bottle drives, cake stalls, bring and buy days – all good community stuff.

As I grew up I joined Rotaract – a sort of junior Rotary and then Jaycees and was involved in all sorts of projects for the benefit of our community. The fact that neither of these groups even exist now tells us something.

Now sporting and cultural groups seem to meet and decide what projects they can undertake depending on the availability of funds from Lotto or the gaming trusts. If sufficient funding comes through they pay someone to undertake tasks that previously, they would have done themselves voluntarily as a group.

In sport we have an army of people driving around in a fleet of cars, encouraging kids to play sport.

We have a local body building a fifty million dollar edifice in the middle of nowhere, supposedly to encourage kids to play sport although how kids from poor families are meant to get there I don’t know.

Imagine if those fifty million dollars was put into a fund. It would earn a real return of say two to three million dollars per year and that money could be put into sports facilities and equipment in the communities where it is so badly needed.

But today it’s all about empires and edifices funded to a very real extent from gambling and sadly the days of true volunteerism are gone.

In my view we are certainly no better off for that fact.

It is my view that those in charge of the game both here in New Zealand and internationally are doing the game a great disservice. They are killing the goose that lays the golden egg.

Last season finished in November – we’ve started again in January – how stupid is that?

Well I remember as a kid, looking forward to the start of the rugby season. And later, I travelled to every test I could get to and those I couldn’t get to, I would be glued to the TV to watch. Now, if I’m home I certainly watch rugby on TV but if I happen to be out that night and miss the Test, then too bad. There will be another one next week.

My old man played every test, bar 2, when he was injured for the All Blacks from 1935 until the Second World War. He got 9 caps. In those days there were just 15 players selected for a test. No emergencies and certainly no substitutions. Now we select 22 players which is about the same as the number of officials who are involved with the team. How stupid is it having a head coach, two assistant coaches, a scrum coach, a kicking coach, a lineout coach, the list goes on.

Over the years the sport has been hijacked. People who used to assist voluntarily have over the years created cushy little paid numbers for themselves.

Mind you, it is not only in rugby we see that sort of thing happening. The days of volunteerism are rapidly fading and that’s sad. Everybody seems to have their hand out these days.

Rugby is now suffering from total over-exposure. My wife who is a real rugby fan refuses to watch rugby at this time. She says the summer sports need their time to shine and I agree with her. Mind you I have to agree with her or I’m in real trouble!

The fact is that the New Zealand rugby supporters are suffering from rugby overload. That view is supported by the spectator figures in places like Canterbury last year. Despite the best players and team in the country, they had to drop ticket prices and give a lot away to get a decent crowd.

Surely that message is not lost on the powers that be in our National Sport.