Australian gamblers lost a whopping $24 billion in 2016

Australian gambling losses are in highlights after reaching an all-time high. The Australian gambling industry loss has reached a staggering $24 billion and the amount is above half of the amount spent by players. New government statistics show pokies losses grew over 4 percent. Pokies accounted for the biggest share of losses, followed sequentially by casinos, racing and lotto.

The hike in sports betting, more than 135 than last year was triggered by the growing popularity of the web and app based wagering. However, sports betting is still small compared to overall gambling losses in Australia.

Alliance for Gambling Reform, which is an anti-pokies group reacted by saying this development should prompt immediate political action to bring annual gambling expenditure below the $20 billion mark. Tim Costello, the alliance spokesman said sports betting hogs attention with advertising overflow, but pokies are more responsible for adding to Australia’s image as one of the largest gamblers. Politicians and regulators should take up measures to reduce annual losses.

The Australian Gambling Statistics were unveiled last week and it showed the Queensland government compiled gambling data for states and territories. This new data comes at a time when the pokies industry is mired in controversy.

A former gambling addict made news by launching a lawsuit in September. The Federal Court is yet to review it. The allegation was leveled at Dolphin Treasure a poker machine being made to deceive users and increase their addiction.

Later, Crown Melbourne, the flagship casino of billionaire James Packer was slammed by accusations in the federal Parliament. The accusers said gaming-floor technicians were ordered to tweak poker machines for making punters lose money. Lastly, Woolworths the supermarket giant was bogged by shareholder scrutiny at its annual general meeting. The Australian Leisure and Hospitality Group, which has a big stake and runs pokies-owning pubs faced the wrath.

Reverting to the sustained queries from the Alliance for Gambling Reform, Woolworths said it will take steps like cutting opening times and imposing daily withdrawal limits, etc. Gordon Cairns, the chairman of Woolworths said they will act after getting detailed information. With over 12,000 poker machines set up at its venues, ALH Group controlled by Woolworths is the biggest pokies operator in Australia.

An ALH Group spokesman said the company being an industry leader knows how to tackle problem gambling issues. It offers punters option to set spending limits on gaming machines and set a time limit. ALH also promotes customer and employee awareness on gambling risks by its responsible gambling ambassador-David Schwar, a former AFL footballer. It also offers a self – exclusion program for punters.

As per to the fresh gambling data, New South Wales has maximum poker machines in the country and faces highest rise in pokies losses about 6.2 per cent. Pokies losses in the state crossed $6 billion, half of Australia’s total loss.

Mr Costello said it is worrisome that Australia lost more wealth gambling per capita compared to any other country. Data obtained from H2 Gambling Capital, a global consultancy shows Australia’s total gambling related losses for each adult resident at approximately $1000 per year.

Odd as it may sound, the hotel industry, said despite the overall gambling losses, the rate of problem gambling went down. Stephen Ferguson, Australian Hotels Association’s CEO said lower than 1 percent of the overall population is affected by the menace of problem gambling.