An equitable tax system is usually thought of as one that collects money from those who have the most to help provide support to those who have the least. How bizarre then that the Australian football codes are arguing that the money they take from problem gamblers hooked on poker machines is essential to their plans to pay enormous salaries to players and administrators. The decision by the AFL and NRL to join Clubs Australia in campaigning against the popular proposal to cap the amount that poker machine players can lose in a sitting has got more to do with the new corporate model of the football business than with feigned concern for community sport.