27 Gambling in Australia Statistics That Will Surprise You (2024)

Australia has pubs, clubs, and casinos that feed its gambling culture. These venues thrive as Australians love to lay their bets. A survey reveals 6.8 million Australian adults identify as regular gamblers. 

Gambling also helps boost Australia’s economy. The industry contributed 420 million Australian dollars to the economy in 2022. By those stats alone, we can see how big gambling is in Australia. 

In this read, we will look at more numbers that explain Australia’s lavish gambling culture.

Highlights of the Article

• Australia had an overall gambling loss of 25 billion dollars.
• Online gambling saw an 8% increase from 2020 to 2022.
• 17.9% of Australian bettors place their wager on sites by Tabcorp Holdings.
• In 2021, 15% of Australians gambled online weekly, while only 2% gambled online multiple times daily.
• 8% of regular Australian gamblers bet on sports events in 2015.
• Sports betting takes up 45% of regular Australian gamblers’ wagers.
• 4.8 thousand gambling venues across Australia are available to its citizens.
• Australians aged 54 to 64 years old are the top buyers of lottery and scratch tickets, represented by 55% of the age group population.
• 64.9% of problem gamblers in Australia are male.

How Much Are Australians Losing on Gambling

On a larger scale, that puts the country’s overall gambling loss at 25 billion dollars.

Australians are the world’s biggest gambling losers. In 2020, an Australian loses an average of $1,277 in gambling. 

The following data will explain the gambling industry and habits of Australians that led to such numbers:

Statistics on Australian Online Gambling

More and more Australians are choosing to turn their bets over the internet. Data shows an 8% increase from 2020, making online gambling one of the fastest-growing segments in Australia. 

Let’s see how it is working out for Australia’s online gambling industry through the following stats:  

1. In 2022, 11% of Australians participated in online gambling in the last 6 months. 

(Australian Government Department of Social Services)

Online gambling is getting more accessible and innovative. This leads to more gamblers participating. Some of them end up making online gambling part of their daily life. In the end, the industry continues to see an increase in participation.

2. 22.7% of Australians placed online bets using their mobile phones in 2018.

(Roy Morgan)

When placing sports bets online, Australians depend more on mobile phones. In 2012, only 5.6% of Australians used their phones to bet on sports. That is a four-fold increase in just six years.

Moreover, that number is still set to grow exponentially. Statista reported that 87% of Australians will own a smartphone by 2026, which will only feed the online gambling community.

3. Australians making online bets doubled in 6 years, from 15.7% in 2012 to 34.1% in 2018.

(Roy Morgan, Inside Asian Gaming)

The numbers had doubled mainly due to the convenience and accessibility of online gambling. Other innovative reasons why online gambling is rapidly growing are:

• Faster internet speeds
• Bonuses and loyalty points
• New betting options (ex., Multi-betting)
• Extensive and convincing advertisements
• Convenient betting smartphone applications
• Immersive experience (ex., Virtual reality and 3D animation)

People find it hard to resist placing bets with all these attracting new qualities and features. 

4. The Australian online gambling market is set to exhibit a CAGR growth rate of 7.09% from 2023 to 2028.

(IMARC)

In 2022, the market reached 4.5 billion USD. The market will only get bigger due to the upsurge of new forms of online gambling. Some examples of that are:

• Keno
• Bitcoin
• Lottery terminals
• Instant scratch tickets

By 2028, the market value of online gambling is expected to reach 7.2 billion USD by 2028.  

5. Online lotteries are the most popular form of online gambling in 2019, with 10.1% of people participating.

(Inside Asian Gaming)

Gamblers also use the internet to bet on horse racing and sports, participated by 5.9% and 5.8% of Australians, respectively. That is atop the already-massive number of bettors who use traditional ways to wager in the racing industry.  

6. 15% of Australians place their bets online weekly, while 2% gambled online multiple times daily in 2021.

(Statista)

Unlike conventional gambling, access to online gambling is easy and constant. It is also commonly done in isolation, so gamblers do not experience any interruptions. With that, more and more Australians get to place their bets multiple times a day or once a week.

7. Tabcorp Holdings is the largest online betting site preferred by 17.9% of Australian gamblers.

(Roy Morgan)

Tabcorp Holdings is a Melbourne-based gambling company that owns the following betting sites:

• UBET
• TAB.com.au
• Tatts.com/Tattsbet

Those sites receive millions of bets daily, making Tabcorp Holdings earn the most in online betting.

Coming second to it is Sportsbet.com.au, which 12.9% of Australian bettors use. Next is Crownbet, which has 6.3% of Australian betting on the company’s gambling sites.

Australian Sports Betting Statistics

Australians enjoy many things, including but not limited to sports and gambling. Put those together, and you get sports betting, which 547,000 Australian adults regularly gambled on in 2015. 

Learn what else is in store for Australia under this form of gambling with the data below.

8. Sports bettors represented 8% of regular Australian Gamblers in 2015.

(Australian Institute of Family Studies)

That percentage might seem low, but it makes up over half a million Australian adults who regularly gamble. 

Many people choose to bet on sports because of the sense of anticipation. They get it from watching the games and the chances of winning money, creating a natural high due to the adrenaline rush.

9. Australian regular gamblers spend 45% of their wager on sports betting.

(Australian Institute of Family Studies)

For the love of showing loyalty to their teams, regular gamblers and sports fans spend most of their wager on sports. The rest goes to other gambling activities like race betting and lotteries.

10. Sports betting saw a surge of 13% in 2016.

(The Sydney Morning Herald)

To place a wager on a sports event, bettors must be in a venue, such as a bar or a casino. They also used to bet by placing a call on the telephone.

But those days are long gone due to the Internet. Today, Australians can easily place their bets through an application or website, which led to this spike in sports betting. 

11. Gamblers’ loss in sports betting swelled by 80% in 3 years.

(Reuters)

In 2019, gamblers only lost 3.2 billion Australian dollars to sports betting. That amount doubled in 2021 as gambling loss inflated to 7.1 billion Australian dollars. 

Since there is always a loser in sports betting, no external factors are to blame for this growth. But this inflation in sports betting loss can be due to the increasing bets in the industry. 

12. Regular male wagers, aged 18 to 49, made up the majority of sports bettors by 88% in 2017.

(Australian Institute of Family Studies)

Most regular sports bettors in 2017 were male, and 55% had an income higher than the average. Then, 28% represented males with lower-than-average incomes. 

The former group has more disposable income to lose compared to those with lower incomes than average.

13. A 2021 survey revealed that Australian gamblers represent 16% of global eSports bettors.

(Statista) 

When the global share of gamblers in eSports betting was rounded up, Australia led the survey again. It revealed that Australians participated the most in eSports betting. 

On the other hand, the United Kingdom had the least bettors on eSports, coming up with only 3%. 

Offline Gamblings Statistics in Australia

Before the peak of the Internet, Australia’s gambling scene was already flourishing. Gamblers spent 17 billion Australian dollars in various forms of gambling in the country, such as:

• Sports betting
• Lotto or lottery games
• Instant scratch tickets
• Horse or dog race betting
• Poker machines, a.k.a. Pokies

Some of those are also available for betting online. But how are these forms of gambling doing outside the internet? Let’s find out below:

14. Gamblers can bet on 4,800 gambling venues across Australian states and territories.

(Statista)

Electronic gaming machines (EGMs) are more recognized as poker machines, or as they call them, pokies. 

In Australia, there is plenty of EGMs. They are everywhere. One can choose from 2,934 hotel venues and 1,840 clubs placed all over the country. 

15. Gaming machines’ per capita expenditure in Australia was 290.18% higher than casinos’ per capita expenditure in 2020.

(Statista)

Australians spent most of their bets on gaming machines. By the end of 2020, the per capita expenditure on gaming machines was 512.58 Australian dollars.

The second highest per capita spending amount was 176.64 Australian dollars that went to casinos.

16. In 2018, 48.6% of Western Australians bought lottery or scratch tickets.

(Roy Morgan)

Lottery and scratch tickets are the least inexpensive way to gamble and win a huge payout. If the ticket does not bear a jackpot, one can still win many secondary or consolation prizes.

That is why, in 2018, nearly half of Western Australians tried their luck by purchasing lottery or scratch tickets. The same went for 43.2% of Queensland’s population. 

17. Over 50% of Australian elderly bought lottery or scratch tickets in an average of 3 months.

(Roy Morgan)

In the world of lottery and scratch tickets, one question crosses everybody’s mind:

“Why do elderly people always win the lottery?”

The answer is that they spend most of their time scratching tickets and betting on the lottery.

Around 55% of Australians between the age of 54 to 64 years old represented the top buyers of lottery and scratch tickets in 2018. The following people who enjoyed these cheap tickets were 50.7% of those aged 65 and above.

Statistics on Australian Gambling Addiction

As the world sees it, Australia has a gambling problem. USA Today revealed that 80% of Australians engage in gambling, and most are addicted. 

Let us discuss this trouble from down under further through numbers:

18. A 2017 survey showed that 1.1 million regular gamblers experienced gambling-related problems.

(Australian Institute of Family Studies)

When gamblers overdo their gambling habits, they can encounter the following issues and consequences:

• Criminal activities.
• Cultural problems.
• Work and school difficulties.
• Relationship issues with family and friends.
• Health problems (emotional, physical, and psychological).

Most of the time, these social costs of gambling are overlooked. But some Australians understand that some effects of gambling are detrimental and have become a public health concern.

That said, we will discuss the data that exhibit these issues and the habits that led to them below:

19. Underage gambling is prevalent in Australia, with 32.5% of individuals below 18 years old participating.

(Novinite)

In Australia, you must be 18 to gamble legally. But in 2022, the industry saw 20% of males and 12.5% of females under the age of majority involved in gambling activities. Several reasons motivate these kids to gamble, some of which are:

• “Normalizing” gambling.
• Seeing gambling as a great social activity.
• Needing a rewarding form of entertainment.
• Attractive advertisements that promote gambling.

 20. 27.5% of young adults in Australia reveal to participate in gambling activities. 

(Novinite)

Young adults aged 18 to 25 years old. During this age, the Responsible Gambling Council warns that emotion and logic are not fully formed in the brain. Young adults are not mature enough to trust their decision-making ability at this age. 

This age group is more likely to face and create gambling issues, such as:

• Possible drug use.
• Increased drinking of alcohol.
• Borrowing and stealing money.
• Spending less time with friends and family.
• Poor nutrition and health due to lack of sleep.
• Cutting classes or not showing up to work to gamble.

If these are ignored, chances are high that the young adult will become a problem gambler.

 21. In Australia, 64.9% of problem gamblers are male.

(Australian Institute of Family Studies)

The proportion makes sense; most gamblers are men, so their gender sees more prevalence of developing gambling problems. 

There is a biological explanation for this. When men gamble, they are not just in for the win but also to display their masculinity. Of the rest of the problem gamblers, 35.1% are female. 

22. Problem gamblers in Australia who come from low-income households wage 27% of their income.

(Australian Institute of Family Studies)

This group of high-risk gamblers spent the most money in 2017. The amount they dedicated to gambling is equivalent to Australia’s yearly household utility bills from their income group. 

From another perspective, their gambling bets are enough to buy more than half of their monthly grocery needs.

23. 29.8% of Australian problem gamblers participated in 3 types of gambling activities simultaneously. 

(Australian Institute of Family Studies)

In 2017, only 26% of problem gamblers in Australia participated in one gambling activity. The rest are 22.9% and 21.3%, and they partake in two and more than four gambling activities, respectively.

Problem gamblers are those who severely face the consequences of their gambling addiction. They crave the most gambling activities and gamble under numerous activities simultaneously.

Gambling Industry Growth in Australia

The Australian Gambling Industry is like fuel to the country’s economy. In 2022, the industry contributed 420 million Australian dollars to the country’s gross value.

That is not all. We shall see further why the growing Australian gambling industry is an attractive investment market.  

24. In 2020, New South Wales’s per capita expenditure was 1,508 Australian dollars.

(Statista)

This makes New South Wales the Australian state with the highest per capita expenditure in gambling. Next to it was the Northern Territory, which had 1,352 Australian dollars per capita.

Both states have levels of government that closely regulate gambling activities in the area.

25. A survey revealed 32% of respondents gambled more than 4 times a week during the 2020 pandemic.

(Statista)

The pandemic was the Australian gambling industry’s catalyst. Even though the number of gamblers had decreased, gambling frequency continued to spike during the pandemic. 

26. Tabcorp reported 5.6 billion Australian dollars in revenue in their 2021 financial year.

(Statista)

Tabcorp in Australia is nearly monopolizing the country’s gambling industry. The company operates online and offline lotteries, wagering, and game services. So, they report the most revenue when it comes to gambling.

27. Gambling activity for the 2020 Melbourne Cup over the internet spiked by 254%. 

(The Latch)

The biggest horse race happens at Flemington Racecourse yearly. Australians call it “the race that stops the nation.” Millions of people place their bets during this. The four biggest companies where they can place their bets are:

• TAB
• Bet365
• Sportsbet
• Ladbrokes

Those four make up 93.92% of the online gambling site traffic. In 2020, they all saw an exponential increase in online traffic.

This spike makes the Australian Gambling Industry particularly attractive to those who want to invest in online gambling.

Wrap up

Gambling is undoubtedly a massive industry in Australia. The numbers show that Australians of all ages participate in gambling activities, even those not yet of legal age. 

That brings another thought on how harmful gambling can be. The data above show how gambling addiction affects Australians, from low-risk to problematic. 

So, even though this industry’s whopping revenue is helpful to the country, Australia manages it through federal, state, and territory government levels. With that, gambling will continue to thrive in the country while the government regulates its social and monetary costs.