GAMBLING DATA
2018-19
Total gambling expenditure (nominal value) by state and territory, 1975–76 to 2018–19
NSW
VIC
QLD
SA
WA
TAS
NT
ACT
$9.9M
$5.5M
$4.3M
$1.1M
$1.3M
$306M
$2.3M
$245M
NATIONAL
Every November, the Qld Statistician releases national figures of all legal gambling activity in every state and territory. There is a small time-lag due to data verification, so the figures are for the financial year ending the year before the release. However, given some jurisdictions don't publish data, this is the only source where all the data is consistent and relatively up to date.
VICTORIA
This data has been compiled by the City of Greater Dandenong, a leadership council of the Alliance for Gambling Reform, to help interested parties obtain information about the impact of gambling upon their local areas.
If an application for poker machines has arisen in your local area, reviewing the previous VCGLR decisions on gaming applications will be helpful in preparing to present a rebuttal case to Council and the VCGLR if necessary. Including specific data of your local area and the potential harm caused by additional poker machines will be crucial to making your case, as well as linking to the listed relevant research.
NEW SOUTH WALES
Data for poker machines in clubs and pubs in NSW is published 6 monthly by the Dept of Liquor and Gaming. Data is reported by Local Government Area (LGA).
There are some quirks to note: The reporting period for clubs is June-Nov & Dec-May, while pubs report July-Dec & Jan-June, although both data sets are released at the same time.
In NSW, there is no venue by venue data. If there are fewer than 5 clubs in an LGA, Liquor and Gaming bundle the data in with a neighbouring LGA. They do the same if there are less than 5 pubs. However, they don't bundle the same LGAs together, and if an additional club or pub opens, they de-amalgamate the data. This means it can be impossible to determine the losses in LGAs with small numbers of venues, especially if they open and close from time to time.
2020 Summary of the NSW situation in regard to gambling harm, legislation, costs etc, produced by the NSW Parliamentary Librarian - we think it's a great starting point if you need to get up to speed quickly.
The Fairfield Community Gambling Harm screening tool project
The Alliance was on the advisory committee for this project, which was funded by the NSW ORG. Using short tools to detect harm among gamblers and affected others, community workers and GPs were trained to help clients fill in the survey, provide general information and to make referrals if appropriate. One outcome was that 53% of participants reported some kind of harm - far higher than any other study has shown.