jayr

"Australians gambled away more than $15 billion in 2001-02 - or $1,016.85 for every Australian aged 18, according to new figures released today.

The figure - out of a total of $125 billion wagered - works out at an average rise of more than $21.95 per head on the previous year.

Put in other terms, 3.4 per cent of the average household's after-tax income was lost gambling.

Poker machines in pubs and clubs swallowed the most money, with $85 billion spent Australia-wide, followed by casinos with $21 billion wagered. "

From SMH, anyone got any comparable figures on the state of UK gambling as I find these numbers extraordinary.

dotty

Funny all this, I thought aussies spent all their time running up and down the beach in Baywatch mode and here they are sitting in clubs glued to poker machines. My dreams crash round me ears again.

jayr

Looked at some UK figures which said the gambling industry worth 42B GBP (lets say $105B) with 10B GBp ($25B) spent on pokies.

On a quick head of population adjustment

UK total = $105B/60 million = $1750 per annum
UK Pokies = $25b/60=$416 per annum

Oz Total = $115B/20 million =$5750 per annum
Oz Pokies = $85B/20 million = $4250 per annum

(not adjusted for adult population only, but shouldn't make much difference tyo the comparison)

Sooo, Ozzies on average gamble more than 3 times as much as Brits and pump 10 times as much into Pokies.

Why can this be???

MrsDagboy

Aussies have traditionally always been gamblers. People (yes, mainly British!) that came out & colonised this country were taking the biggest gamble of their lives when you think about it. Its evolved from there. One other big influence has been the asian/vietnamese community, many of them have a huge gambling culture which means they spend mega$, particularly at the casinos & on Keno.

dotty

I think boredom has a lot to do with it. We pass one of these HUGE clubs with multi storey car park, (bear in mind the shops here dont have them). Its full day and night, always articles about poverty here because of it. Mega problem with retired people too, old ladies eating dogfood cause they stuffed the pension in a poker machine, man looses family home, kids sent without food type media. Very big problem here.

Stupid laws too, like allowing childminding in these shitholes till 10pm, free too. Great dream lifestyle there folks.

Think Government has taken out cash points in these places now, because it is such a huge problem.

Wonder how much they really try to control it, its a great revenue raiser isn't it.

Interestingly their busiest time apart from Saturday and Friday nights, is Dole day.

MrsDagboy

I dont thik they do try to control it dotty, a huge amount of state funding for things like hospitals & health etc come from gambling, particularly poker machines. The more money is put in, the more the govt rubs its hands together in glee.

Sad to see elderly people so sucked in & frittering away hard earned money I agree. But they get no money out of us