| | |  | Last Updated: Tuesday, June 19, 2007 |  | | | Australians Spending More on Gambling
- Sunday, 2 Jul 2006
Despite the illegal status of many forms of gambling in Australia, recent figures from the Bureau of Statistics indicate that more Australians are spending money on gambling than ever before. Figures show that over 40 percent of today’s turnover in the country’s pubs and bars are generated by pokie machines, while online gaming figures continue to soar. The Bureau of Statistics’ study also found that the amount of money spent on gambling increased by 4.5 percent in the last quarter of 2005.
State to state, gambling figures speak for themselves. A spokesperson from the Bureau of Statistics, Paul Sullivan, says that gambling accounts for 1.8 percent of total retail turnover in the state of Victoria. The figure is much higher in other states, where New South Wales leads the way with 7 percent. South Australia and Queensland each have gambling revenue figures of approximately three percent on total retail turnover.
A significant percentage of the nation’s gambling revenue is generated from pokie machines, which are commonly found in hotels throughout Australia. New South Wales now has approximately 90,000 pokie machines, while Queensland has close to 35,000. While licensing is mandatory, the number of illegal gaming ventures is also increasing, prompting some industry insiders to predict that government legislation to curb land-based gambling will not be not far away.
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