More than one in 10 (11 percent) Australians report they’ve gone online to gamble at least once in the past six months, an increase from 8 percent in 2020, according to 2022 research from the Australian Communications and Media Authority. Add online sports betting and other means of legal gambling, and that’s about $1,277 lost every year per person-more than double that of the United States, The New York Times reported in 2018, and around 50 percent higher than second-placed Singapore. Pokies alone netted a loss of over $11.4 billion in 2021. Most is lost on poker machines (pokies) easily available in suburban pubs and service club restaurants, far beyond the destination gambling of casinos.
The former CEO of World Vision Australia, Tim Costello, often says that no one gambles away money like Australians.Īussies lose more than $25 billion a year to gambling, the largest per capita in the world, according to the Australian Institute of Family Studies.
