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Australian gambling spend, for a long time the world’s largest per capita, hit a new record of A$31.5bn ($19.7bn) in the year ending June 2023, according to a new report.
After a lull induced by the coronavirus pandemic, gambling has roared back in Australia, with the 2023 figure up 23 percent over A$25.6bn for the year ending June 2019.
The report released on Wednesday (March 5) by consulting firm Equity Economics and Development, the Alliance for Gambling Reform, and Wesley Mission said rebounding and surging gambling losses exceeded Australia-wide aged care spending in 2023, and approached government spending of A$35.2bn on the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
By mid-2023, the average annual per capita loss for adult Australians was A$1,527, an increase of 17 percent over pre-pandemic figures, the report said, with average losses rising to A$2,492 for those who gamble, or a 25 percent increase over financial year 2019.
But after factoring out the more than one third of the population that do not gamble, and putting aside insubstantial gambling – such as occasional lottery ticket purchases – the report estimated that regular gamblers could now be losing an average of around A$35,000 annually.
“In this context, discretionary spending would be expected to decline as households prioritise essential goods and services,” the report said.
“However, cost-of-living pressures can also create a perfect storm of financial and psychological pressures that can exacerbate the risk factors for harmful gambling.”
The report also noted that real wages fell 5.7 percent over the same period compared to real gambling expenditure increasing 6.8 percent, amounting to a differential of 12.5 percent.
Gambling losses have also increased faster than inflation, household spend on essential utilities and government spending on education or housing, it said.
The report said that compared with government initiatives on cost-of-living relief, health care subsidies and other measures dealing with Australia’s “cost-of-living crisis”, there has been “a complete policy vacuum on mitigating the cost-of-living impacts of gambling”.
It called on the federal government to implement the unanimous recommendations of a bipartisan parliamentary committee in June 2023, particularly banning gambling advertising, prohibiting inducements, levying gambling profits to fund harm reduction strategies and creating a national gambling regulator and ombudsman to “hold the industry to greater account”.
A legislative response to that report, which argued for a phased ban on all online gambling advertising within three years, appears to have been delayed until at least after the federal election to be held in the first half of 2025.
The Alliance for Gambling Reform and Wesley Mission also called on Australian state and territory governments to ban slot machine use between midnight and 10am, and to introduce mandatory, registered cashless gambling systems with time limits and loss pre-commitment.
The Australian gambling industry has undergone a series of regulatory and market shocks over recent years, with land-based casinos suffering heavy fines and shrinking VIP markets, while online gambling and slot machine operators continue to be probed by federal and state authorities.
Even so, some gambling segments are withstanding widespread calls for a more punitive and restrictive government approach.
A New South Wales (NSW) state government review of slot machine use has produced uneven attempts at reform, resisting mandatory cashless gambling until the results of pilot tests are in.
On Tuesday (March 4), NSW gaming minister David Harris walked back an election campaign promise to cull 9,500 slot machines from the state’s inventory, citing the saving of A$60m in removing the machines and “no material difference” to the “intensity of play”.
Meanwhile, leading online bookmaker and Flutter subsidiary Sportsbet has responded to public anger over still-ubiquitous gambling advertising and withdrawn live odds updates before, after and during breaks in rugby league and Australian Football League matches.
“Sportsbet can confirm that after listening to stakeholder and community sentiment on gambling advertising, we have taken the decision to remove integrations and ‘odds style’ ads in live sporting broadcasts,” a Sportsbet spokesman said.
Sportsbet is facing a class action lawsuit launched in December in Victoria state over allegedly offering in-play betting products, which are illegal in Australia.
