South Australians have lost almost $20 billion on pokies since they were legalised 30 years ago

South Australians have lost an astronomical amount of money to pokie machines since they were legalised 30 years ago.

South Australians have lost almost $20 billion on pokies since they were legalised 30 years ago and the rate at which money is being fed into the machines is now at record levels.

According to official numbers sourced from Consumer and Business Services, South Australians lost a record $956 million in the 2023-24 financial year, up from $917.5 million the year before. Gambling revenue had dropped as low as $511.5 million during Covid.

SA Best MP Connie Bonaros is planning to introduce legislation when parliament resumes to curb the spend on pokies by introducing mandatory pre-commitment for players that sets a cap on how much they can lose in a specified time frame.

Connie Bonaros speaking to a victim of Pokies on Hindley Street. Picture: Kelly Barnes

Ms Bonaros described pokies as the “crystal meth of gambling’’.

“How many more lives need to be destroyed before they (Labor and Liberal) stop kowtowing to the poker machine lobby? Have MPs from either side no moral compass?’’ she said.

Tasmania is due to have cashless gaming, with a default limit of $100 a day while NSW has started its trial.

“The precedent has been set, common sense has to prevail and the government and opposition must support a pre-commitment scheme in line with NSW and Tasmania,’’ she said.

Ms Bonaros said the introduction of machines that accepted notes in 2019 by the then Liberal government had made pokie losses worse.

Legislation to allow pokies in SA was introduced as a private members bill by Labor Treasurer Frank Blevins in 1992, paving the way for the players to start using the machines on July 25, 1994.

In the first year of pokies, South Australians lost $185.4 million. Those cumulative losses have now reached $19.7 billion, of which the government has gained $7.8 billion in taxes and venues have reaped $11.9 billion.

Ms Bonaros described pokies as ‘the crystal meth of gambling’.

In 2022-23, there were 11.691 poker machines in SA, spread across 473 venues.

Australian Hotels Association SA chief executive Anna Moeller said a pre-commitment scheme was not needed as the state already had minimisation schemes in place, including facial recognition software, that did not exist in NSW.

Ms Moeller also said gambling taxes helped fund community services, roads and nurses and helped keep pubs alive by keeping costs down for patrons.

“It also means that we’re not currently paying $40 or $45 for a schnitzel in our dining rooms,’’ she said.

Ms Moeller also said the introduction of note acceptors in pokies had not made a significant difference.

“If you take inflation or CPI into account, actually the amount going through is lower,’’ she said.

A spokesperson for the government declined to comment on whether it would support mandatory pre-commitment for pokie players, but said the increase in gambling revenue is “in fact a trend that has been seen nationwide as gambling activity returns to pre-Covid levels’’.

The spokesperson also said a number of “harm minimisation measures’, including barring players, had been introduced in recent years.

Liberal shadow attorney-general Josh Teague said he would “look carefully at any harm minimisation measures to better protect vulnerable South Australians.”

Nick Xenophon entered the South Australian parliament in 1997 as the No Pokies MP and said the machines had “changed the social fabric of South Australia for the worse’’.

“It has actually left deep economic and social scars,’’ he said.

Mr Xenophon conceded his original mission to eradicate pokies had failed but “I did my best, I was there as a watchdog’’.

“I feel despondent and those that should be ashamed of themselves are the legislators on both sides of the fence who have turned a blind eye to what has happened and aren’t prepared to deal with it,’’ he said.

“Was it a fight worth having? Absolutely, does the fight still need to be fought? The answer is yes.’’

Originally published as South Australians have lost almost $20 billion on pokies since they were legalised 30 years ago