Australian news outlet, New.com.au, reports that the latest consumer data shows South Australian punters (A.K.A. gamblers) lost over $700 million on poker machines during the last financial year, down from ’06.
It is the second lowest financial result in the last ten years and deprives the State Government of $34 million in tax revenue.
Ian Horne, Australian Hotels Association SA general manager, told The Sunday Mail that revenue from gambling, in addition to food and drink sales, had “flat-lined’ in the past five years.”
Horne said that “weak consumer confidence was leading more people to stay at home.” There they also had access to cheap food, drink, and online gambling:
“There has been an extraordinary explosion of online gambling. Go back a decade and the only place that had a 42-inch flat screen TV was a pub, now they’re very common. Being at home is also far more easy, you don’t have to drink and drive.”
Horne continues that moving to online gambling has also created major problems for governments, which find it more difficult to regulate or claim tax revenue from it.
Bill Cochrane, Clubs SA deputy president, said that many sporting organizations were struggling to fund their activities as punting moved to the internet and away from poker machines:
“If there is revenue being raised through gambling, it should be at least coming back to the state and used for the community benefit. While there’s more money moving off to these online gambling sites, we’re getting less and less money for sport and recreation. People can just gamble as much as they like on their phones and computers these days and don’t get out and have be under all of the controls that are in pubs and clubs.”
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