Australia lost big money on online pokies

Australians who played on pokies in pubs and clubs or online pokies lost together more than AU$11.4bn in the last 5 years. These figures were released by the Gambling and Social Determinants department from the Monash University in Melbourne.

That the house has an advantage in online pokies is no surprise, so that the average Australian gambler is losing playing pokies is a logical result. The study from the Monash Uni shows that 30 years prior to 2019 showed an overall loss of more than 308 Billion Australian dollars. This number is from people playing pokies in hotels, clubs and pubs.

During the pandemic the losses were decreased, due to obvious reasons of the lockdown. C. Livingstone, Professor at the Melbourne Monash University about the worrisome numbers: “Previous trends are likely to resume after the easing of pandemic restrictions with hotel and club gambling machines total expenditure for 2022-23 likely to exceed AU$13bn across Australia.”

Tim Costello form the Alliance For Gambling reform argues that a national regulator can bring states together in the battle against problem gambling: “A regulator can bring the states together, it can progressively reduce the number of poker machines, it can fast-track harm minimisation measures such as digital wallets. At the moment there is no coordination and no will to act.”

However, gambling can also have a good impact on the (Australian) society. Lotterywest proves that a gambling institution can give back a lot to its community who is in need for help.