{"id":64564,"date":"2017-12-04T18:44:48","date_gmt":"2017-12-05T02:44:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=64564"},"modified":"2017-12-04T18:56:58","modified_gmt":"2017-12-05T02:56:58","slug":"study-reveals-portrait-of-gambling-in-australia-6-8-million-play-regularly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/study-reveals-portrait-of-gambling-in-australia-6-8-million-play-regularly\/","title":{"rendered":"Study of Gambling in Australia: 6.8 Million Play Regularly, Losing $18 Billion Since 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Australian government last week released figures from a study that presented the most comprehensive picture of Australian gambling habits<\/a> to date.<\/p>\n

\"Pokies
Video and slot machines were responsible for $9 billion in losses by Australian gamblers, half the total amount they lost for 2016 and 2017. (Image: The Conversation)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The study, conducted by the Australian Gambling Research Centre, part of the Australian Institute of Family Studies, found that about 6.8 million Australians gamble regularly, about 42 percent of the country\u2019s adult population.<\/p>\n

Gambling critics pointed to these figures to show that Australians lost a record $18 billion on gambling 2016 and 2017 as further evidence the country needs to address what it sees as an epidemic<\/a>. The losses increased 4.2 percent, roughly double the rate of inflation.<\/p>\n

\n

Video poker and slot machines referred to as \u201cPokies\u201d in the land down under, were responsible for half of the total amount at $9 billion. Gamblers parted with nearly $4 billion in casinos, $2.2 billion on horse racing and $1.4 billion on lotteries.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

While losses from sportsbetting were much smaller than the other forms of wagering, checking in at $700 million, they did have the largest increase at 13 percent. Officials attribute this to the popularity of internet and app-based betting.<\/p>\n

Pokies Problem?<\/h2>\n

The Alliance for Gambling Reform said the amount Australians lost on the machines should alarm legislators and that they needed to take action to stem the rise. Spokesman Tim Costello told the Sydney Morning Herald<\/em> politicians should work on a goal of less than $20 billion annually.<\/p>\n

“Whilst sports betting is top of mind with the advertising deluge …\u00a0the latest national figures once again confirm that the pokies are easily the biggest contributor to Australia’s tragic status as the world’s biggest gamblers,” he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The AGRC report that classified 6.8 million citizens as regular gamblers counted those who placed up to 10 bets a month on lotteries, video poker, racing, sports, keno, casinos, bingo, poker, private wagers. Of those 1.1 million were estimated to be at risk of problem gambling.<\/p>\n

According to Dr. Andrew Armstrong, the lead researcher on this project, \u201cAn average regular gambler spent an estimated [$972] in a year, with card playing poker gamblers spending the most [$2,807] on poker and other gambling activities and buyers of instant scratch tickets the least [$475] on tickets and other activities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRegular gamblers who favored the pokies reported spending [$987] on average on this activity, those who regularly gambled on races spent [$999], sports bettors [$789] and casino table gamblers [$1,046].\u201d<\/p>\n

Dirty Business?<\/h2>\n

Video poker machines are facing a barrage of criticism, not to mention a lawsuit claiming the design is intentionally meant to get players hooked<\/a>. In September, a self-proclaimed gambling addict claimed that manufacturers of the popular machine Dolphin Treasure was purposely designed to appeal to compulsive gamblers.<\/p>\n

Another controversy involved Crown Resorts founder James Packer. Three whistleblowers who previously worked at the billionaire\u2019s Melbourne casino said people in the company tampered with the machines to give the house a bigger advantage.<\/p>\n

Federal MP Andrew Wilkie said he was informed of the claims by former employees and urged Parliament to investigate. Packer has vehemently denied the allegations.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe because we\u2019re a bigger company or maybe because we\u2019re more well-known or maybe even because I\u2019m more well-known,\u201d Packer said. \u201cAndrew Wilkie throws something into parliament which is a lie, which gets a lot of headlines.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Australian government last week released figures from a study that presented the most comprehensive picture of Australian gambling habits to date. The study, conducted by the Australian Gambling Research Centre, part of the Australian Institute of Family Studies, found that about 6.8 million Australians gamble regularly, about 42 percent of the country\u2019s adult population. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":64565,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,19,18,20,1074],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nStudy Reveals Portrait of Gambling in Australia: 6.8 Million Play Regularly<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gambling in Australian hit an all-time high, with losses of $18 billion reported in 2016-2017, with video poker and slot machines leading the way.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/study-reveals-portrait-of-gambling-in-australia-6-8-million-play-regularly\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Study Reveals Portrait of Gambling in Australia: 6.8 Million Play Regularly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gambling in Australian hit an all-time high, with losses of $18 billion reported in 2016-2017, with video poker and slot machines leading the way.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/study-reveals-portrait-of-gambling-in-australia-6-8-million-play-regularly\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-12-05T02:44:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-12-05T02:56:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/pokies.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1012\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"668\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/study-reveals-portrait-of-gambling-in-australia-6-8-million-play-regularly\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/study-reveals-portrait-of-gambling-in-australia-6-8-million-play-regularly\/\",\"name\":\"Study Reveals Portrait of Gambling in Australia: 6.8 Million Play Regularly\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/study-reveals-portrait-of-gambling-in-australia-6-8-million-play-regularly\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/study-reveals-portrait-of-gambling-in-australia-6-8-million-play-regularly\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/pokies.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-12-05T02:44:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-12-05T02:56:58+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77\"},\"description\":\"Gambling in Australian hit an all-time high, with losses of $18 billion reported in 2016-2017, with video poker and slot machines leading the way.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/study-reveals-portrait-of-gambling-in-australia-6-8-million-play-regularly\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/study-reveals-portrait-of-gambling-in-australia-6-8-million-play-regularly\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/study-reveals-portrait-of-gambling-in-australia-6-8-million-play-regularly\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/pokies.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/pokies.jpg\",\"width\":1012,\"height\":668,\"caption\":\"Video and slot machines were responsible for $9 billion in losses by Australian gamblers, half the total amount they lost for 2016 and 2017. 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