Latest Edition of Australian Gambling Statistics

October 13, 2023 | Gambling

MELBOURNE (October 10, 2023) — This edition of Australian Gambling Statistics contains 2020–2021 gambling statistics for all Australian states and territories.

During 2019-20 and 2020-21, various COVID-19 closures and restrictions were applied to hotels, clubs and casinos. These restrictions impacted all forms of gambling activity at these venues, including pokies, table games, keno and wagering. Even when open, gaming venues were typically operating at reduced capacity due to social distancing rules and capacity constraints. Consequently, the gambling data reported for both 2019-20 and 2020-21 should be considered in the context of these restrictions.

To see how Victoria compares with the rest of Australia on gambling expenditure, see Gambling in Victoria on the Foundation’s website.

This comprehensive set of data covers the entire range of legalised gambling products in Australia such as pokies, casino, keno, lotteries and wagering (race betting and sports betting). It provides a wide range of gambling data, including total turnover, total expenditure, per adult turnover, per adult expenditure, percentage change in turnover and expenditure each year, market share of each gambling product and government revenue collected from gambling taxes.

Notable findings were:

total gambling expenditure in Australia increased from $21.243 billion in 2019–2020 to $24.039 billion in 2020–2021 (13.2 per cent increase)
per adult gambling expenditure in Australia increased from $1,067.73 to $1,200.22 (13.2 per cent increase)
total electronic gaming machine expenditure in Australia increased from $10.198 billion to $12.182 billion (19.5 per cent increase)
total casino expenditure in Australia decreased from $3.514 billion to $2.729 billion (22.4 per cent decrease)
total keno expenditure in Australia increased from $306 million to $419 million (36.8 per cent increase)
total lotteries expenditure in Australia increased from $2.624 billion to $2.838 billion (8.1 per cent increase)
total wagering (race betting and sports betting) expenditure in Australia increased from $4.567 billion to $5.815 billion (27.3 per cent increase)*

*Note: Wagering expenditure reported for Victoria was $740.4 million from Tabcorp only. It does not include $1.622 billion lost by Victorian gamblers with online wagering providers licensed interstate, bringing total Victorian wagering losses in 2020-21 to $2.362 billion (with $2.331 billion of this subject to Point of Consumption Tax).