In the world of gambling winning money and losing money are just one step apart and any casino player knows that crossing the line can happen at the drop of a hat. According to recent reports on the gambling activity in different states of Australia, the amount of money many players are losing has been progressively growing in the last months. For just 30 days the residents of the state of Queensland have lost more than A$215 million on poker machines operating in the region.
The amount of money lost while playing pokies which was reached in July is a record one for the gambling industry in Australia. If predictions could be relied on, experts are forecasting even bigger level of losses for the 2017-2018 time period. They estimate that with the current pace of spending money in casino venues and losing part of them, Aussie gambling players will lose up to A$718 million in the next two years. As for the month of July, the residents and guests of the Gold Coast have broken the record of cash spending on poker machines. Up to A$30.59 million were lost by casino players in the area, that is also known for having the most operating pokies in the country – a total of 5736.
Next in the list of big casino spenders is the Sunshine Coast with about A$15.84 million, followed closely by the people living in Logan Beaudesert who lost A$15.31 million. There were big losses in the rest of the country as well. The Brisbane – South region reached A$15.17 million, while players in Ipswich spend about A$14.86 million on pokies. In the past, the situation was not too different than what it is now. Speaking of Queensland back in July 2004, there were as many as 38,265 operational poker machines which were dispersed throughout 1353 gambling venues across the state. Nowadays, in July 2017 there were a total of 42,757 pokies available at 1156 gaming sites.
What Makes People Lose Money
The reports were issued by Fairfax Media conducted the analysis of publicly available data published by the Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation. The conclusion after reading it is that people are spending a considerably bigger amount of money on pokies in comparison to other forms of gaming available at the casino venues and clubs in the country. One of the main reasons for this tendency is that the pokies are so easily accessible and people get addicted to the style of playing very fast.
The government has taken numerous measures in the years to regulate the industry in a way that would prevent gambling addiction from spreading across the nation. Such are the increasing of pokies caps and the strict moratorium on the approval of new gaming machines. The year 2009 saw the introducing of pokies caps amounting to 24,705, whereas in 2012 the number of operating machines in hotels was reduced to 19,500.
