With the closure of Australian pubs and casinos precipitated by the menace of the COVID-19 pandemic, one may have assumed that Australia’s gamblers would end up losing a little less. However, this is not the case and the nation’s gambling losses have risen, with the re-opening of gambling venues expected to cause record levels.
This is not a new problem for the country that has a long-standing gambling problem among its citizens.
Downhill down under
Australia’s currently worsening gambling losses are part of an extended trend. A study conducted in 2017 revealed that Australia’s gambling losses per capita are the highest across the globe at $958. Hong Kong comes in at a somewhat distant second with $768, third and fourth are Finland and New Zealand with figures of $515 and $454, respectively.
Japan’s figure is $447, Ireland comes in at $433, Norway is only slightly lower at $430, and The US round up the top 8 with $421.
Canada, Panama, the UK, Malta and Iceland all have figures ranging from $382 to $339 per capita.
Studies have shown that low-income individuals spend an average of 10% of their disposable money on gambling, with their high-income counterparts coming in at a mere average of 1%.
The elephant in the room
Far from curbing gambling spending, the country’s mandatory lockdowns drove Australians to online alternatives to their preferred gambling venues. One in three gamblers surveyed admitted to opening a new account with many of them already falling into the at-risk category. Further information gathered from reports shows that the number of gamblers who indulged four or more times per week shot up to 32% from 23%.
While the lockdowns were fully in place, many Aussies found themselves with more cash than normal and while some made the wise decision to use the surplus to pay for essentials, a significant number decided to hoard their savings until gambling venues were re-opened. The resumption brick-and-mortar gambling has seen the nation’s gamblers spending at an alarmingly unseen rate, with examples like Melbourne’s suburb of Brimbank setting a single-day pokie losses record ofAU$482,168 causing concern.
Questionable ties
Many of the voices of concern raised regarding gambling losses come from the mouths of politicians. These utterances seem disingenuous to some when the fact that the National government gains taxes from the legitimate gambling industry, and where the money eventually winds up is largely unknown.
In 2019, it was reported that the government claimed over $500,000,000 in taxes from gambling. If Australia’s punters were more conservative with their gambling spend, this number would decline, leaving revenue void in its wake and negatively affecting the economy.
Punishing pokies
An overview of gambling in Australia shows that the country spends more on lottery tickets than anything else. The biggest losses, however, are created by the ubiquitous pokie.
The Australian Gaming Council shows that pokies and other types of gaming machines contributed $12.5 billion in losses over an average year. More than 200,000 pokies are currently in operations across the country, making up a whopping 20% of the global tally. The machines are also firmly ingrained into the national landscape with more pubs and clubs than not featuring a shiny cash-bandit.
The popularity of the devices did not escape the Australian Football League. In Victoria, 90% of all league teams own and operate pokies, providing the teams with additional revenue, should attendance figures fall.
New South Wales residents are particularly enthusiastic about gaming machines with half of the nation’s pokies located in this state. These machines generated $6.5 billion profit in 2019, a figure comparable to the GDP of Montenegro or Somalia.
Looking for answers
Some anti-gambling advocates and politicians have tabled numerous potential solutions to the rampant spread of problem gambling. These include reducing casino operating hours, barring credit card use for online gambling, restricting the number of cheque cashing services near gambling venues, placing a cap on the number of poker machines, introducing a limit on betting, and swapping out traditional pokies for cashless devices.
Whether any of these measures will ease the problem is uncertain. But with the cost of problem gambling estimated at nearly A$5 billion per year, urgent action needs to be taken to address the issue which is the cause of undesirable consequences like theft, family violence, depression, and bankruptcy.
