Fact Check reveals Victorians lost $66 Billion on the Pokies

A fact check investigation conducted by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation has unveiled the exact figure citizens of Victoria lost in 30 years to electronic gaming machines –a figure way more than the $66 billion Ms. Samantha Ratnam, leader of the Victorian Greens quoted in a recent tweet. She made the statement in a tweet announcing the party’s plans for gambling reform in the state.

In her words, “Today the Greens are announcing their plan for a pokies-free Victoria. Since they were introduced in the state 30 years ago, Victorians have lost $66b at the pokies, and we’re currently on track for record losses this year.” Ms. Ratnam directly quoted data from research conducted by Alliance for Gambling Reform a few months ago. However, the fact check report from ABC has shown that the figures are much less than the reality.

Working with the data provided by the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission (VGCCC), the report found out the loss was up to $89.7 billion in 30 years. On a nominal basis, the Alliance’s data is accurate but after taking into account inflation, the figure rose to great numbers.

By taking inflation into account, the figure gotten by the fact check reflects the “real” and actual value of losses at the pokies. Meanwhile, it should be noted the estimated losses at the pokies over 30 years did not happen in a linear continuum. Data analysis showed that there has been a reduction in losses starting from 2002-03, with the lowest figures recorded in 2020, 2021 and 2022 due to lockdowns necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the Victorian Pre-Election Budget Update published data that showed “elevated electronic gaming machine (EGM) activity” and an expected uptick in tax from poker machines profit due to increased losses at the pokies recorded this year. Experts posit this is caused by the easing of lockdown restrictions. “It’s come back with a vengeance from what we have seen from the month-to-month data that has so far been released,” said Professor Charles Livingstone, gambling research expert at Monash University.

It is worthy of note that the figure under discussion does not consider losses from thousands of unrecorded pokies at the Crown Melbourne. According to data, Crown Casino’s poker machines alone recorded $1.9 billion in revenue between 2016-17 and 2020-21 and after being adjusted for inflation, the figure comes to a sum of $2 billion.

“Total gambling revenue was over 11 per cent of the state tax revenue in Victoria during the peak of pokie machines which has now dropped to about 8 per cent – and most of that comes from pokie machines,” Dr Livingstone told ABC Fact Check.

He added: “What we are looking at is a system where the state government is getting a reasonably significant chunk of its state revenue from this source.”

These alarming figures made Ms. Ratnam take to Twitter, as she echoed the minds of many anti-gambling activists. According to the politician in her subsequent tweets, the Greens will enact a system to limit gambling losses in the state by implementing a poker machine buy-back scheme, betting limits, and a ban on political donations from the gambling industry.

Meanwhile, the gambling industry in Australia is experiencing a major upheaval as a series of inquiries and sanctions sweep across the country’s biggest operators.

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