Australia has become a “global anomaly” for having an unusually large number of poker machines in its pubs and clubs, according to the Canberra-based Australia Institute.  The study highlighted the discrepancy between Australia’s population and the number of gaming machines present in the country, with an emphasis on the number of poker machines.

Australia Battling With Poker Machine Problems

About 835,000 (78%) of the world’s 1,076,000 poker machines are in designated gambling venues such as casinos and racetracks. The rest of the machines (241,000) are in non-gaming venues such as clubs and pubs. When you look at Australia’s gambling market, there are close to 183,000 poker machines in non-gambling venues, which accounts for nearly 76 percent of all gaming machines present in non-gambling venues.

Australia Institute’s study was founded on the World Count of Gaming Machines, which is an annual worldwide survey commissioned by the Gaming Technologies Association. This survey showed that Australia has 123 people per gaming machine. Australia takes the eleventh spot in the ranking of countries with the highest concentration of gaming machines in the world. Japan ranks third, while tourist drawers Saint Maarten and Aland Islands take the first and second spot, respectively.

Australia’s gambling industry generates over A$23 billion in revenue each year and over 50 percent of this amount comes from poker machines. H2 Gambling Capital carried out a study in 2016 which showed that the most prolific gamblers in the world live down under. Australian gamblers are estimated to have lost $990 each year which is quite a lot more than gamblers from other developed countries. Next on the list is Singapore as gamblers lost around $650 per year while Ireland comes in third place as their gamblers lost around $500 per year.

Labor Party Promises To Reduce Pokies In Tasmania

The Labor party has address the issues with poker machine addictions head on by stating that if they win the elections in March 2018, they will remove an estimated 2,300 gaming machines from pubs and clubs in Tasmania by 2023. This move is an attempt by the Labor party to manage the poker machine addiction crisis that players and their families are facing.

The problem with going after pubs and clubs that have poker machines in Australia is that it can create an economic crisis for these small business owners as they generate a significant amount of their revenue from poker machines. Pubs and Clubs in Canberra, the Australian capital are already under threat after the ACT government allowed the new Canberra Casino to operate poker machines. Western Australia already has a no poker machine policy in pubs and clubs and Tasmania could soon follow suit.

Poker machines in Tasmania are responsible for creating hundreds of jobs and generating one percent of state revenue. Rebecca White, the leader of the Labor party has said that if they win, they will make provision to support pubs and clubs who will be impacted by the decision to remove poker machines.

Tags: Australia, Canberra, Poker Machines, pokie machines, pokies, problem gambling, Tasmania

This entry was posted on Friday, December 15th, 2017 at 1:40 am and is filed under Poker News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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