Australians lead the world in gambling losses (AP Photo)
According to the Economist, Australia's per capita gambling losses rank first in the world, according to a new survey.
According to consultancy H2 Gambling Capital, Australia lost A $990 per capita in 2016, 49 percent higher than Singapore, in terms of gambling spending less gambling money. The most popular gambling tool is an electronic slot machine, which accounts for more than half of the total annual loss to A $18 billion.
In the West Sydney area of Canterbury-Bankstown, the most popular are electronic slot machine gambling halls. Older gamblers were drinking, smoking and waiting to play on the slot machines, but most of them returned empty-handed. According to statistics, local residents lose three hundred and twenty nine million nine hundred and ninety nine thousand nine hundred and ninety nine Australian dollars a year at gambling clubs.
Australia has been legalizing gambling for decades, and there are now one hundred and ninety six thousand nine hundred and ninety nine slot machines in Australia, equivalent to one for an average of 114 Australians. Most states allow slot machines to be installed in bars and gambling clubs, while only Western Australia is restricted to casinos. Some gamblers bet heavily that they could even lose A $1200 in an hour. There is criticism that slot machines are used to deceive players. Livingston (Charles Livingstone), a (Monash University) expert at Melbourne's Monash University, explains that many of the possible combinations of slot machines, the word "close" and the promise of huge bonuses, It causes the body to secrete dopamine, a neurotransmitter that causes pleasure, "similar to the sensation produced by cocaine addiction."
In 2010, goverment consultants estimated that the social cost of gambling exceeded A $4.7 billion. The agency has made a number of recommendations, including lowering the slot machine's maximum bet to A $1 (currently A $10) and introducing a mechanism to allow gamblers to set quotas for losses.
However, there is little political interest in the measures. State and Territory goverment regulates most categories of gambling activities, earning A $5.7 billion a year in revenue from the gaming industry, a revenue that is more popular with goverment after the mining boom receded. The federal goverment can intervene in theory, but the measures have repeatedly been thwarted by gambling lobbyists.
The industry claims to have created tens of thousands of jobs and made a "huge social contribution". Gambling companies have also contributed billions of dollars to the two major political parties. Independent Congressman Wilky (Andrew Wilkie), who proposed reforms in 2012 but failed, criticized gambling donations as "corrupting goverment," as a bribe.