Gambling rates in decline in New South Wales

Gambling rates in decline in New South Wale. Australia has one of the highest numbers of gamblers in the world. This has held to be true for quite some time now. Australians have also been the world’s biggest gambling losers in the world. But now this seems to be changing. With ACMA introducing the third installment of their 3 part plan to crackdown on illegal offshore gambling venues, the number of gamblers also seems to be changing – At least in New South Wales.

The recent study conducted by the New South Wales Gambling Survey indicates that the number of people who regularly enjoy gambling has actually decreased by 12%. Over the years Australian authorities have taken it upon themselves to prevent gambling problems by adapting policies that protect those who chose to gamble at unauthorized gambling venues, instead of those who legally conduct their business in Australia. Casinos are very popular in Australia, offering multiple locations, venues as well as online casino bonuses and promotions.

The average gambling participation rate is still 53%, which is definitely higher than average. Another important finding of the study was that most of the gamblers are using lotteries and gaming machines. It is not surprising that the least harmful way of gambling are lotteries, while gaming machines followed by online poker games have one of the highest risks of harm. The Australian government is heavily involved in the promotion of responsible gambling to prevent and minimize gambling harm. The survey aims to better understand the gambling situation in NSW and improve the way they approach this industry. And considering the decrease in overall gamblers, these efforts seem to be successful.

In 2016-27 $9.53 billion was spent on gambling in NSW. The last survey conducted in 2011 showed that the percentage of people involved in gambling was 65%. The study also found that most of the people actually have a gambling problem is 1%, but a big chunk of this group consists of young people aged 18 to 24. The survey also provides the number of people who actually get affected by problem gamblers.

If NSW has around 56,000 problem gamblers, each one of them affects at least 6 other people, making the number of people affected by gambling problems 336,000. The age of 18-24-year-old unemployed men is still the most prevalent. Also, almost 70% of those 18-24-year-old whose problem gamblers are single, compared to 45% of adult Australians. But the gender gap between male and female players of this age is not that big with 64.9% of problem gamblers being male and 35.1% being women.