Research from credit bureau Illion and analytics firm AlphaBeta indicates that gambling in Australia has increased almost 300 percent during the Covid-19 lockdowns in the country’s two most populous states, New South Wales and Victoria.
The average weekly spend by punters of legal age has increased from a base index of $100 per week before Covid to almost $385 for the week ending September 19.
Illion CEO Simon Bligh told the Sydney Morning Herald that online gambling drove the increase given the closure of pubs, clubs, casinos and most other forms of entertainment in NSW and Victoria since June.
“There really isn’t anywhere else to blow your cash in Sydney and Melbourne if you want a quick entertainment hit,” Bligh said.
Andrew Charlton, managing director of AlphaBeta parent company Accenture, added, “It appears many people have been introduced to online gambling during lockdowns. They’ve discovered there’s a poker machine in their pocket. Combine that with the boredom of being at home and extra money – maybe from government payments or extra savings—and maybe this addictive new technology gets away from us a bit.”
According to Inside Asian Gaming, a study in April 2020 shortly after Australia’s first Covid-19 lockdown was implemented found online gambling had increased 67 percent in the space of a single week. In recent years, Australian gamblers have earned a reputation as the world’s big losers.
In 2018, reported the New York Times, government statistics showed Australians spent AU$24 billion (US$18.4 billion) on pokie machines, or more than AU$1,200 per person per year. At the time, that was more than double the amount spent by gamblers in the United States, and around 50 percent higher than Singapore.
