Western Australia low gambling loss due to pokies restriction

Recent data from Western Australia has proved the stance that restricting access to pokies results in lower gambling losses.

Western Australia has the lowest rates of gambling loss per capita in the country with less reported symptoms of problem gambling as against the rate in other states.

Experts have linked this to the fact that the pokies are only permitted in Crown Perth, the state’s only gambling venue, compared to how they can be found in pubs and clubs in other states.

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According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, from 2018-19 Western Australia had just 2,400 pokies in the whole state, amounting to less than one poker machine per 1,000 residents. This is compared to the 91,000 machines available in NSW in the same year. This means Western Australia has 0.95% poker machines per 1,000 residents, far lower than Victoria (4.46%), Tasmania (6.71%), South Australia (7.44%), Queensland (9.05%), Australian Capital Territory (9.14%) and New South Wales (11.54%).

In the same vein, total gambling expenditure in Western Australia is not up to what is lost alone on poker machines in New South Wales for more than a decade.

Senior research fellow in public health at the Federation University Dr Angela Rintoul said the correlation between less poker machines and lower rates of problem gambling was undeniable.

“Because [poker machines] are concentrated in just one venue in a casino in Perth, then people are not as exposed in Western Australia to … what is really the most harmful form of gambling that we’ve got in Australia,” she said.

“This machine is the perfect kind of money trap.”

“Wagering is still a problem, obviously, but [the problem with machines] is a combination of the way that machine is able to trigger the release of dopamine through these kinds of tricks that has gone inside it, alongside the widespread availability in most of Australia.”

Other studies based on the latest Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey reveal that other parts of Australia show 1.6 times more problem gambling tendencies than Western Australia.

Experts also note that the reduced poker machines expenditure in Australia does not translate to increased spend on other forms of gambling in the state.

Dr Rintoul concluded that while poker machines in Western Australia are banned from social clubs such as RSLs that has not affected their viability.

The study failed to address online casinos and pokies, which could be more prevalent in Western Australia, because of the lack of access to retail gambling venues. Australia does not have any regulated online casinos, which means millions of dollars is filtered to offshore gambling sites yearly.

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