South Australians lost near-record amounts on poker machines on their way out of COVID lockdowns, reversing a long-term decline in pokie revenues.

Key points:

  • SA pokie users lost a net total of $769.87 million for the year to July
  • It’s the highest pokie revenue recorded in 15 years 
  • Advocates say it proves more needs to be done to address problem gambling

Poker users lost a net total of $769.87 million for the year to July, the highest figure in 15 years.

The figure represents a nearly 13 per cent increase on the last full trading year prior to the start of the pandemic.

The losses equate to $434 for each person in each state.

The figure came despite a continued reduction in the number of poker machine entitlements, which are gradually retired as part of regular trading rounds.

The $769.87 million Net Gaming Revenue figure includes the takings of poker machines minus the winnings returned to gamblers.

The figures do not include the Adelaide Casino, which has more than 1,000 gaming machines and in December opened a multi-million-dollar expansion.

There are 11,697 active machines in 486 other venues around the state.

The gambling data, published by Consumer and Business Services, show $320.44 million of that money went to the state government in tax while the remaining $449.43 million remained with venues.

The near-record revenue was a major turnaround on the previous financial year, where months of coronavirus shutdowns prompted a huge hit to pokie revenue.

$511 million was recorded in net gambling revenue in 2020-21, down from a consistent figure of about $680 million for the three preceding years.

State government-enforced coronavirus restrictions saw gaming venues off-limits for much of March, April, May and June 2020.

Pokie spending rebounded strongly when venues reopened, with gamers losing more than $70 million in each of July and August.

Major changes to the poker machine industry took effect in December, with operators now allowed to accept banknotes of up to $100 in machines

The changes, supported by both the Liberal state government and Labor opposition, saw new harm reduction measures, including barring periods and the introduction of facial recognition technology.

‘Time will tell’ whether pokie turnaround lasts

The Australian Hotels Association’s Chief Executive Ian Horne said the high result was driven by several factors, including “pent-up demand” during the pandemic and the replacement of a number of old gaming machines.

“I think it’s fair to say that this last 12 months has been quite unique, never happened before,” he said.

“Time will tell, but a lot of it will be the fact that we were in a COVID-19 pandemic year, which broke all the rules, where people did get extra income from various government support but also had nowhere to spend it.

“And that’s why it’s reflected in sales, not just in gaming, not just in gambling, but in many retail sectors.”

“Whether it’s sustainable or not, I guess we have to wait year-on-year.”

Calls for ‘arms-length industry regulator’

South Australian Council of Social Service (SACOSS) CEO Ross Womersley said the increased revenues showed attempts to mitigate problem gambling had not been successful.

“You really have to ask, given the amount of additional money that has been ploughed into the machine, in such a short period of time, you really have to ask whether or not the gambling sector has actually been doing its work to make sure that it’s behaving responsibly,” he said.

He said gambling venues needed to be more open about the information they collect around problem gamblers.

“We think there should be publicly available data about the total number of gamblers that they’ve identified to be displaying risky behaviours, the referrals that they’ve made, and the effectiveness of those referrals to actually helping to intervene and reduce gambling harm,” Mr Womersley said.

Mr Womersley also called on government to create an arms-length industry regulator.

“It’s one of the most substantial contributions to our state coffers on an annual basis and of course, when more money goes through the machines, more taxes are paid,” he said.

“We need really strong independent mechanisms for regulation in order to ensure that people who shouldn’t be being harmed, are identified and identified early and prevented from that happening.”