About a thousand Australian dollars a year ($673) spend on average by adult Australians on gambling, which is the highest in the world. That's the conclusion reached by the Alliance for Gambling Reform, which analyzed spending by poker slot machine enthusiasts in Victoria.
Using data from the Gambling and Casino Control Commission of Victoria, experts found that in 30 years, residents of the state lost a total of 66 billion Australian dollars in poker machines.
Unlike the rest of the world, poker machines in Australia are not limited to casinos. About 80 percent of such devices in the country are in clubs and pubs. This has led to the fact that Australia now accounts for 18% of all poker machines installed in the world.
When poker machines were legalized in Victoria in 1992, they were limited to ten thousand. Currently, 30,000 machines are legal in Victoria, with 26,321 devices installed in pubs and clubs.
In 2004 the state government, in an effort to reduce the harms of gambling and provide a break for gamblers, passed legislation to reduce the hours of operation of poker arcade outlets from 24 to 20 hours a day. However, the law did not specify what hours the establishments must close. As noted by the Gambling Reform Alliance, owners of some establishments do not specify hours of operation to ensure that visitors have access to gambling around the clock.
In addition, the government fails to take into account that many online casinos operate 24/7 without breaks or weekends. Not only are such sites always available, but they also attract players with bonuses like https://topcadcasinos.net/welcome-bonuses/. As a result, users are happy to sign up and spend money.
The Alliance called for urgent measures to combat problem gambling, including mandating uniform closing hours from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. at all poker machines and lowering the maximum bet on all slot machines to $1 Australian.
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