According to new data provided by researchers and associated with federal pandemic payments, the Northern Territory of Australia saw local gamblers boosted their poker machine losses to a record amount of money following the coronavirus pandemic outbreak and the subsequent shutdowns last year.
Reports show that the clubs, hotels and two casinos in the Northern Territory were ordered to switch off all of their poker machines in the period from March 23rd to June 5th, 2020 to respond to the public health emergency related to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, once local punters were allowed to play the so-called pokies, they quickly ended up generating higher monthly losses in comparison to the ones piled up in the years before.
The Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade (DITT) provided some data, according to which player losses for July 2020 increased by 52% across all venues in comparison to the levels reached in the same month in 2019 and reached AU$25.5 million.
When broken down depending on the venue the losses were generated at, it was the NT clubs that accounted for the biggest poker machine losses of AU$9.4 million. Hotels across the state were second, with AU$8.2 million in players’ losses, followed by the two casinos in the Northern Territory that accounted for poker machine losses of AU$8 million.
Poker Machine Losses in the Northern Territory Are the Highest in Australia
According to the authorities’ report, gaming machine taxes that were collected by the Government of the Northern Territory in the 2019/20 financial year amounted to AU$28 million. The authorities also got a “community benefit levy” of AU$9.6 million. As revealed by a spokeswoman for the Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade, explained that the aforementioned levy helped the authorities provide funding for ongoing support programs and research associated with gambling addiction.
One of the gambling researchers at the Menzies School of Health Research, Dr Matt Stevens, explained that the increased welfare payments given by the Federal Government to Australian people during the coronavirus pandemic have attributed to the surge in poker machine losses.
Increased player losses that ranged from 10% to 20% have been reported in order jurisdictions across Australia, too, after the local governments relaxed coronavirus restrictions. However, no other state in the country has seen losses as big as the ones generated by pokie players in the Northern Territory, Dr Stevens noted. The data shows that player losses in the state were gradually reduced in the months after July 2020, they were still slightly above previous peaks reached before the coronavirus outbreak.
The new data regarding poker machine losses come a few months after a Government-funded report revealed that the Northern Territory has seen the prevalence of problem gambling more than double in a three-year period to become the biggest in the country.
Reports have shown that people who were found to be at a higher risk of developing gambling addiction were from native groups, and were often unemployed. Male gamblers were also found to be more susceptible to problem gambling than female ones.
- Author
Daniel Williams
