Qld poker machine losses climb to new record

Queenslanders have pumped a record amount of money through pokie machines in the first three months of 2019, leading for calls for the State Government to urgently bring real reforms to the industry.

QUEENSLANDERS spent more than a quarter of a million dollars every hour on pokies in March, as first-quarter gaming-machine losses soared to record levels.

Analysis of public Queensland Government data revealed poker machine revenues continue to climb, even as the total number of machines in operation for the period dipped slightly.

Extended pokie hours ‘insane’

More gambled than ever before

Governments addicted to revenue

The March result pushed total losses for the first three months of 2019 to $572 million, a $23 million jump year-on-year following a record yearly pokie haul of $2.4 billion in 2018.

Alliance for Gambling Reform director Tim Costello blasted the State Government for failing to undertake “massive reform” and drastically reduce machine numbers.

Alliance for Gambling Reform, director Tim Costello says the Queensland Government must slash the poker machine cap and reduce hours that gamblers can use the machines.

“It’s pretty clear that Queensland is the second worst state in Australia behind New South Wales for poker machine proliferation and harm because the industry has way too much influence,” he said.

He said there were too many poker machines and trading hours were too long.

“It needs massive reform in Queensland and it’s a shame the Labor Government has just been fiddling at the edges on pokies reform while doing nothing to reduce the harm or losses,” he said.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said earlier this year that said she wanted fewer gambling machines however has failed to roll back a cap on total machine numbers in pubs and clubs, which have not changed since 2012.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk joins Star Entertainment Group Chairman John O'Neill to mark the construction phase of the $3.6 billion Queen’s Wharf casino project.

Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath said the government supported a “comprehensive self-exclusion model” that supported gamblers excluding or banning themselves from pokie dens.

She said there were 3031 self-exclusions and venue-directed exclusions in 2018-18, up from 2575 in 2016-17.

Attorney-General Yvette D'Ath says the Government wants problem pokie players to “self-exclude” from pokie dens.

“The Palaszczuk Government provides more than $6 million annually to deliver free, confidential problem gambling counselling and support to people affected by gambling,” she said.

In March, which is traditionally one of the slowest months for pokies, machine revenues climbed to $202 million, a $9 million year-on-year jump, with Queenslanders funnelling an average of $4,415 into the machines every minute.

The largest ever monthly pokie haul was in August last year when gamblers lost more than $227 million in the machines.

The Government measures and taxes pokie revenues on metered wins, which is the amount of cash retained by venues after paying out pokie winnings.

Originally published as Qld poker machine losses climb to new record