Department of Business and Consumer Services figures show pokies losing to unregulated online betting
POKER machines in SA have reported their worst year on record, as experts and industry warn punters are now instead losing their money to more unregulated online betting.
POKER machines in SA have reported their worst year on record, as experts and industry warn punters are now instead losing their money to more unregulated online betting.
Latest figures from the Department of Business and Consumer Services show that SA punters put $680 million into one-armed bandits during the 2016-17 financial year.
That marks a collapse from $719 million the year before, and is the lowest dollar figure since a $669 million result in 2002.
Adjusted for inflation, last year’s result is the poorest on record for poker machines.
The final 2016-17 result also shows the State Budget tax take from poker machines came in at $6 million less than expected, raising new doubts about forecast cash rises that underwrite future surpluses.
Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis, the hotels industry, social service providers and independent Senator Nick Xenophon have all warned that they fear the drop-off in poker machine revenue masks a hidden increase in problem gambling as punters with smartphones and credit cards just move online.
Senator Xenophon said the online gambling world was the “Wild West” of punting, and governments had failed to grasp the emerging problem.
“Superficially, it seems like a great thing that spending on poker machines is going down, but that just doesn’t tell the full story,” he said yesterday.
“There is an epidemic with online and offshore gambling that is hidden in the shadows.”
Mr Koutsantonis said his online wagering tax, which applies to the profits of registered Australian internet betting companies, helped keep tabs on their operations and recovering money that was being used to help addicts.
“I’m glad revenue from pokies is down, it shows the State Government’s harm minimisation measures are working,” he said. “Unfortunately, some of this activity is migrating online where it is harder to identify problem gambling.
“However, we introduced a brand new tax on online wagering in last year’s State Budget, with the same proportion of the revenue hypothecated to fund harm minimisation.”
SA Council of Social Services chief executive Ross Womersley said the fact that online gambling agencies could shop themselves around to different jurisdictions and countries made it hard to measure the full scale of their operations.
“Our understanding is that issues with problem gambling have just continued to escalate,” he said. “The lack of visibility with online gaming ... is clearly a big problem.”
Australian Hotels Association general manger Ian Horne said the poker machine downturn also tracked a broader decline in SA’s discretionary spending as higher costs hit households.