TAS: Australians lost $14b gambling
By Don Woolford
HOBART, Aug 7 AAP - Australians gambled away more than $14 billion in 2000-01, accordingto new figures released today.
That works out at $988.90 for every Australian aged 18 or more, a rise of more than$57 on the previous year.
Put another way, 3.4 per cent of every adult's after-tax income was lost gambling.
Australian Gambling Statistics, prepared by the Tasmanian Gaming Commission from datain all states and territories, showed Australia's love affair with gambling continuesunabated.
The losses totalling $14,378,676, up from $13,291,764,000 the previous year, came fromgambling turnover of $118,225,258,000, a rise of 3.83 per cent.
Per capita, Northern Territorians were the heaviest losers, pouring an average $1,251each into pokies, horses, lotteries and other forms of gambling.
In NSW, $1,198 was spent, while Victorians lost $1,147.
Western Australians, who don't have pokies in their pubs and clubs, were the lightestlosers, at $464.
Poker machines swallowed the most money by far.
A whopping $77.7 billion was poured into the machines, with $8.32 billion of it lost.
And that's only counting the pokies in pubs and clubs.
Casino poker machines are included separately with other casino games like Keno and blackjack.
Casino turnover was $22.68 billion, with losses $2.54 billion.
The other major gambling forms were TAB betting ($1.62 billion lost on a turnover of$10 billion) and lottos ($1.14 billion lost on a turnover of $2.74 billion).
Perhaps the clearest indication of gambling's growth comes from per capita loss figuresover the last 25 years.
In 1975-76 each adult lost an average $94.06 - $53.66 gaming and $40.39 on the horses and dogs.
Ten years later the figure had risen to $234.93 - with gaming taking $147.78 and racing $87.15.
By 1995-96 it had leapt to $708.25 and gaming's share to $486.37.
The latest figure of $988.90 is made up of $860.94 on gaming, $125.11 on racing and$2.86 on sports betting.
While gaming, and particularly pokies, continue to be the main form of gambling, racingappears to be making a modest comeback.
Racing losses were up about $95 million after falling the previous year and being relativelystatic for some time.
While the gambling money continues to pour in, government gambling revenue actuallyfell for the first time in the 25 years of records - from $4.4 billion to $3.7 billion.
But the report warns that the latest figure is not comparable with previous ones becauseof changes brought about by the introduction of the GST.
AAP dw/was/sb m
KEYWORD: GAMBLING
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