Report shows Aussies are spending more on the pokies

In November 2017, the Queensland Government released the 33rd Edition of Australian Gambling Statistics, with the comprehensive report revealing pokies expenditure by state from 1990 to 2016. The report included gaming machine expenditure at a state level and per capita, and showed an increase in pokies revenue across the board, despite new regulations being added at a state-by-state level to further control the pokies industry and expenditure decreasing in most states.

Looking at the most recent statistics for the 2015-2016 financial year, we’ve broken the information down state-by-state and compared it to data from the previous 2014-2015 financial year. The information below relates only to electronic gaming machines in licensed clubs and pubs, and does not include expenditure on the pokies within Australia’s land based casinos. Western Australia is not included in the data due to pokies only being offered within Crown Perth.

Real pokies expenditure in the 2015-2015 financial year

Note: These figure values are in millions

New South Wales – $6,102.629 (up from $5,824.969)
Victoria – $2,616.703 (down from $2,608.049)
Queensland – $2,266.511 (up from $2,213.497)
South Australia – $718.603 (down from $736.103)
Tasmania – $114.244 (down from $115.459)
ACT – $168.493 (down from $169.806)
Northern Territory – $87.032 (up from $83.790)

The overall real gaming machine expenditure in Australia during 15-16 was $12,074.215, compared to $11,751.673 the previous year. This data shows an increase in expenditure nation-wide despite a majority of states decreasing their pokies expenditure, with significant increases in NSW and NT contributing heavily to the overall increase.

Pokies expenditure by capita during FY2015-2016

New South Wales – $1,023.43 (up from $978.09)
Victoria – $557.61 (down from $558.76)
Queensland – $616.00 (up from $601.80)
South Australia – $535.09 (down from $544.71)
Tasmania – $282.86 (down from $283.75)
ACT – $551.04 (down from $554.18)
Northern Territory – $480.80 (up from $458.27)

The overall gaming machines expenditure per capita in Australia during 15-16 was $649.86, compared to $633.03 the previous year. This data shows an increase in per capita expenditure nation-wide, despite a majority of states decreasing their per capita expenditure, with significant increases in NSW, QLD NT contributing heavily to the overall per capita increase.

Number of pokie machines per state in FY2015-2016

New South Wales – 94,408 (down from 94,864)
Victoria – 28,958 (up from 28,892)
Queensland – 46,481 (up from 46,697)
South Australia – 13,301 (up from 13,294)
Tasmania – 3,560 (up from 3,495)
ACT – 4,635 (down from 5,022)
Northern Territory – 2,098 (down from 2,145)
Western Australia – 2,190 (down from 2,254)

All up, there were 195,631 electronic gaming machines operating within Australia during the 15-16 financial year, 1,030 less than the previous year.

Our thoughts on the data

The most interesting thing about these statistics is that pokies expenditure is on the rise nationwide despite there being less gaming machines and more regulations. There were fewer pokie machines in NSW and NT, while expenditure increased, suggesting that limiting the number of machines is ineffective in stopping people from gambling on the ones that remain.

It will be interesting to see what next year’s data reveals after the introduction of the Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill in September 2017 that effectively banned offshore casino sites from accepting Australian players. The Amendment Bill was implemented to safeguard vulnerable players from problem gambling habits, but these statistics show the gaming machine industry certainly isn’t struggling and suggest the government isn’t as phased about harmful gambling as long as the profits are being kept on Aussie soil.