Australian Gambling is a favorite extracurricular activity in Australia. Men tend to participate in these games more often than women, and a survey shows that lottery games are the most popular of all the gambling options. There has never been an ongoing national survey that included questions about gambling, so Australia never knew just how much they gamble, until now. The HILDA survey changed that. HILDA is the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey that recently added gambling questions to its survey. This study found the level of gambling activity in Australia as well as found how this activity was affecting the socio-economic conditions of the country.
Australian Gambling – The Statistics
Now, the study showed a lot of data affecting many parts of the country. It revealed that gambling is prevalent amongst older men. As age increases, for men, so does their gaming activity. Gambling is not so common amongst women in the country, but statistics show that gaming activity still tends to increase with age for females as well. The most active age group for men who gamble are ages 65-74. Women are most active gamblers between ages 55 and 64. Both males and females are least active in gambling games in between the ages of 18 and 24. While all of this is true, the mean amount of money spent per age group is much different. Men between the ages of 45 and 54 spend the most money on gambling games every month. For women, they spend the most on gambling after reaching age 75 and beyond.
Lottery games are by far the most popular of all gambling games. Lottos make up more than 25% of the entire gaming industry in Australia. Instant scratch tickets take the second spot holding about almost 10% of the market, while poker machines take the number three slot with a little over 7% of gambling activity. Despite all of these numbers, again, expenditures show a different story. Poker dominates the monthly table that shows how much players spend on gambling, followed by poker machines. Sports bets and table games follow behind. Lotteries and instant scratch tickets fall on the smaller end of the table, which is surprising considering the time that gamblers put into those games. Most players remain on the low-risk end of the spectrum, but quite a few have crept over to very high risk for their gambling activities.
According to the study, active gambling links to other lifestyle factors such as smoking and drinking. Indigenous peoples were also found to be on the higher end of gamblers. The study shows that gambling is a favorite activity amongst Australians, and remaining on the low risk of the spectrum is a good idea so that it doesn’t become a widespread problem in Australia.
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