Gambling industry now making more money from fewer people: research
$5,000 Welcome Bonus
Problem gambling has doubled in the past decade alongside the growth of online betting, despite the popularity of gambling waning overall.
The new research comes as gambling counsellors warn of increased harms as NSW emerges from lockdown and poker machine lounges reopen, spring racing can be enjoyed live and many sporting competitions resume.
The study by Gambling Research Australia shows gambling was undertaken by nearly two-thirds of adults in 2010/11, but that declined to just over half in 2019. At the same time, the rate of problem gambling doubled in the adult population from 0.6 per cent to 1.23 per cent.
Natalie Wright, director of the NSW Office of Responsible Gambling, said: “The interesting thing is that gambling expenditure as a whole has continued to grow, so you have this smaller pool of people who are spending more.”
The research shows the increase in problem gambling coincided with a rise in the proportion of online gambling, which went from 8.1 per cent to 17.5 per cent nationally and 7.8 per cent to 17.8 per cent in NSW.
Online gamblers are more likely to be male, younger, more educated and in a de facto relationship. The research also says they are nearly three times as likely as other gamblers to be problem gamblers and twice as likely to be at risk.
Ms Wright said there was an increase in gambling after the 2020 lockdown, and she expected the same to happen this year.
“We know from the last lockdown when land-based venues reopened, there was a sharp increase in expenditure in the first month after lockdown on pokie machines - it was 19 per cent higher in that first month [compared with the same month in 2019], and then it tapered off to normal levels after a few months,” Ms Wright said.
“Our GambleAware services have much fewer calls during lockdown and then an increase when venues reopen and anecdotally, it’s very much about people who have trouble with pokie machines … needing help when venues reopen.”
