The latest survey conducted by the government of New South Wales indicates a massive twelve percent decline in overall gambling rates for this area. As the results of this survey suggest, the proportion of individuals who regularly turn to some kind of gambling entertainment has drastically dropped since 2011.

According to one European Gaming Media and Events release, the government of New South Wales which is Australia’s most populous state shared that just fifty-three percent of the ten thousand individuals that the survey included had invested in some kind of gambling activities over the previous year. This is a big decline considering the fact that this particular ratio had stood at around sixty-five percent in 2011.

Gambling in Australia

Gambling is among the most popular entertainment activities which are undertaken by many residents of Australia. In fact, over eighty percent of Australian residents engage in some kind of gambling activity. This eighty percent is among the highest rates of gambling activities in the world. The number actually includes around four percent of the population who engages in playing poker at least once per week while around sixty-two percent accounts for individuals’ yearly gambling spend.

When it comes to the most populous Australian state, New South Wales it has a rich and long history of such activities. The very first Australia-based horse racing event occurred back in 1810 in Sidney. Then, the very first lottery also occurred in this area back in 1881. Australia was also home to the very first official lottery which opened back in 1956. As estimated recently, almost 100,000 pokies are located in New South Wales which is only beaten by the state of Nevada that as of 2014 operated around 181,000 machines.

Between the 1^st of December 2017 and the 31^st of May last year, New South Wales made a massive profit of almost $2 billion from just poker players. The biggest poker revenue was generated by Fairfield back in 2013 when the area itself generated around $93 million in local pubs and around $298 million on local clubs. This figure is for $123 bigger than the combined gross poker machine revenues generated in Sydney for the same period.

Lotteries as the Most Popular Gambling Form

As revealed by the latest New South Wales survey on gambling activities in this area, lotteries of different kinds had remained the most popular kind of gambling. As commissioned by the state-powered Responsible Gambling Fund, around thirty-seven of the survey’s respondents have bought at least one lottery ticket in the previous, twelve-month prior. The same investigation has also shown that different kinds of gambling machines in the area had been enjoyed by around sixteen percent of the surveyed individuals.

The gambling machines in question here include scratch cards which were enjoyed by around thirteen percent of the surveyed individuals while around nine percent of participants had enjoyed keno games. The state’s government explained that its latest examination had shown that sportsbetting activities were among the fastest-growing gambling types with around six percent of participants in the survey enjoying these activities in the previous period.

All in all, the survey conducted by the government of New South Wales will give the government a better understanding of the state’s overall gambling environment, common changes in behaviors of gamblers as well as other crucial information on problem gambling and how different areas across the state are affected.