A new study in Australia has found that casino slot machines, known as poker machines or “pokies” down under, earn twice as much when placed in a casino setting as when placed in the club market of New South Wales.
The study is expected to support the arguments of those who are trying to authorize pokies for the sole casino in the Australian capital of Canberra. The city, in the Australian Capital Territory, is the only jurisdiction in the country that bans electronic gaming machines, which are prevalent in the private clubs of New South Wales, the state surrounding the capital territory.
Each casino poker machine in a casino in Australia brings in an average of $128,600, compared to club and hotel machines, which bring in an average $59,400, according to a study by the University of Adelaide.
According to a report in the Canberra times, the ACT government is considering a casino request for 500 poker machines, to break the monopoly on slots enjoyed by the private clubs.
The report, commissioned by the national agency Gambling Research Australia, found that casinos have 6.6 percent of the country’s poker machines, but make 13.3 percent of pokie revenue.
The report included a caution designed to allay fears that casino pokies in ACT would harm Australia’s efforts to fight problem gambling.
“Evidence that gamblers spend more on each pokie in larger venues is not evidence that large venues are more dangerous than local clubs/hotels,” the report says. “It may simply be that machines operate for greater number of hours and casinos have a much greater number of patrons. However, it may also be that casinos are permitted to host unrestricted machines that do have the capacity to increase players’ losses in a given period.”
The new owner of the Canberra Casino, Aquis, has lobbied the government heavily to allow electronic gaming machines in the venue.
