auscyclopedia
The reform fight is about betting ads. Half of what Australians lose gambling goes into poker machines.
Australia has been arguing about gambling for three years, and the argument has a shape. It is about phones, not pubs. About the betting ads that wrap the footy, the apps, the inducements, the online bookmaker. That is the gambling the 2023 parliamentary inquiry took aim at, and the advertising it wanted phased out. It is the fight the government’s long-delayed response, this month, is being judged on.
It is also not where the money goes. Of every dollar Australians lost gambling in 2023-24, the single largest share, more than half, went into poker machines in pubs and clubs. The thing the debate is loudest about is not the thing the country loses most on.
1. Where the money actually goes
Online sports betting, the part of gambling the reform debate is built around, is not even broken out on its own here. It sits inside that $8.4 billion wagering figure, alongside the horses. So the channel that draws the loudest argument is a slice of the category that is itself about a quarter of what the country loses.
Total gambling expenditure (net player loss) by form, Australia, 2023-24. Wagering covers racing and all sports betting; online sports betting is not separated from racing in the source. Source: Australian Gambling Statistics, 40th edition.
2. The debate is aimed somewhere else
None of this says online betting is harmless, or that the ads do not work. The 2023 inquiry heard, in detail, why a phone in every pocket is a new kind of risk, and dollars lost are not the same as harm done. But the reform conversation has narrowed almost entirely to online advertising, and the numbers underneath it are smaller than the volume suggests. The pub poker machine, the oldest and largest channel, barely features in the national argument.
Part of the reason is who holds the lever. Online wagering is licensed and advertised nationally, so it lands on the Commonwealth’s desk. Poker machines are licensed by the states, taxed by the states, and woven into the finances of clubs and pubs in each of them. The biggest channel of losses is the one the federal debate has the least direct say over.
3. The state that proves it
West Australians are not free of the machines. The Perth casino runs about 2,300 of them, and those losses sit inside the state’s casino figure. What Western Australia does not have is the thing every other state does: a network of poker machines in the local pub and club. The states that put machines in every suburb lose heavily on them; the state that kept them to the casino floor has the gap to show for it.
Club and hotel poker-machine losses per adult (net player loss, persons 18 and over), by state, 2023-24. Excludes casino machines, which is why Western Australia, where machines exist only at the Perth casino, reads zero. Source: Australian Gambling Statistics, 40th edition.
The shape of it
The gambling Australia argues about is online, advertised, and on a phone. The gambling Australia loses most on is a machine in the corner of a pub. More than half of the $32 billion lost in a year went into poker machines, nearly double everything bet on racing and sport put together. One state keeps the machines out of its pubs, and its people keep about that share of their money.
Online betting is worth regulating on its own terms, and harm does not track dollars exactly. But a debate that is only about the ads is a debate about a corner of the losses. The largest channel has been sitting in plain sight, in the front bar, the whole time.
What this finding does not establish
It does not measure harm. Dollars lost and lives damaged are different things. Online gambling can do harm out of proportion to its share of losses, through speed, access, and targeting, and this finding does not weigh that. It compares where the money goes, not where the damage lands.
It cannot isolate online sports betting. The source counts racing and all sports betting together as wagering, so the online-only figure the ad debate centres on is a part of the $8.4 billion, not separable here. That makes the comparison with poker machines a conservative one.
Per-adult figures for the tourist-heavy territories are lifted by visitors, the source warns, so the Northern Territory and ACT numbers should be read with care. The Western Australia comparison rests on a legislative fact, that its pubs and clubs have no poker machines, not on a visitor-sensitive estimate. It does not mean West Australians lose nothing on machines: the Perth casino runs about 2,300 of them, and those losses are counted under casino, not in the club and hotel figure that reads zero. And Western Australia is not the lowest per adult across all gambling; Tasmania is marginally lower. The point is the missing pub and club machine network, not the ranking.
Expenditure here is net player loss, the amount staked less the amount won, not turnover and not a share of household budgets. The inquiry and the government response are described as what they are, and this finding makes no forecast.
Sources
- Queensland Government Statistician’s Office, Australian Gambling Statistics, 40th edition, 1998-99 to 2023-24, released September 2025. Summary Table D (total gambling expenditure by form, 2023-24) and Table E (per capita gambling expenditure). Expenditure is net player loss; per capita uses the mean estimated resident population aged 18 and over. Figures retrieved from the published summary and product tables; arithmetic on those figures is shown in the footnotes.
- House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs, inquiry into online gambling and its impacts on those experiencing gambling harm, report You win some, you lose more (2023), which recommended a phased ban on online gambling advertising. The government’s response of May 2026 is referenced as the current stage of that debate. Quoted as the public record; not assessed here.
Footnote (1): 2023-24 total gambling expenditure, Australia, $32,184.5 million; gaming machines $16,293.1 million (50.6 per cent of the total); total wagering $8,429.0 million (26.2 per cent); lotteries $3,476.9 million; casino $3,465.2 million; keno $469.1 million. Gaming-machine losses are 1.93 times total wagering. “Gaming machines” excludes casino gaming machines, which are counted under casino.
Footnote (2): per-adult gaming-machine losses, 2023-24: NSW $1,273; QLD $797; NT $790; SA $643; VIC $556; ACT $503; TAS $245; WA $0. Per-adult losses across all gambling: NSW $2,007; NT $1,871; VIC $1,357; QLD $1,518; SA $1,200; ACT $1,045; WA $896; TAS $888; Australia $1,521. Western Australia’s club and hotel gaming-machine figure is zero because poker machines are not permitted in its pubs and clubs; the machines at the Perth casino are counted under casino.
How this finding was built
The source
All figures come from the Australian Gambling Statistics, the national series compiled by the Queensland Government Statistician’s Office from each state and territory regulator. The 40th edition, covering 2023-24, was released in September 2025. The summary and product tables were saved and every figure read from those saved copies.
Losses, not turnover
The figures are expenditure, which the source defines as the net amount lost by players, the amount staked less the amount won. That is the amount that leaves households, not the much larger amount wagered. Per-adult figures use the resident population aged 18 and over.
What is measured, quoted, or computed
The losses by form and by state are measured in the source. The shares and the ratio of poker machines to wagering are arithmetic on those figures, shown in the footnotes. The 2023 inquiry and the 2026 government response are quoted as the public record. This finding makes no forecast.
First published 21 May 2026. Figures are as at the 40th edition of Australian Gambling Statistics (2023-24). Subject to revision as later editions are published; revisions will be logged on this page.