A new report finds that 10.6 million Australians aged 18+ gambled in the 12 months to June 2018, including 8.6 million who bought a lottery or scratchie ticket making lotteries the most popular form of gambling in the country.
In the last three years lottery and scratchie tickets have stayed steady with 8.6 million Australians buying a lottery or scratchie ticket.
The report found a change in popular lottery games with declines in purchases of traditional lotto games—especially mid-week—and a rise in other categories of games.
Scratchie tickets has also declined slightly over the last three years down 0.2 million to 3 million Australians in the year to June 2018.
The report is compiled from personal interviews with thousands of people in their own home. The survey included interviews with over 14,000 people who had gambled in the last three months.
Michele Levine, CEO of the research firm said buying lottery tickets is the favorite gambling outlet for more Australians, but in-depth analysis of gambling habits show Australians do not bet heavily on lotteries as they can with other forms of gambling.
“This participation rate far outstrips other forms of gambling such as betting, casino table games, keno and poker machines,” she said in the report. “However, the spending patterns on lottery and scratchie tickets mean lottery and scratchie tickets take up only about 13 percent of Australians’ overall gambling spend—far below the proportion spent on poker machines (over 60 percent) and also below the proportion spent on betting which amounts to about 17 percent of gambling spend.”
