Tuesday, March 25th, 2014 | Written by April Bergman
A former deputy premier in the Australian state of New South Wales is under fire for allegedly burying a gambling harm report that took a decidedly dim view of video poker machines (pokies). The New South Wales Treasury estimates that gambling venues will pull in AU$9 billion per year from video poker machines, much to a local official's dismay. Mar 23, 2014 Gaming machine count puts NSW second in the world. New South Wales is second only to Nevada as the most gambling machine-packed state in the world, according to a new report. The World Count of Gaming Machines report, released by Australia’s poker-machine lobby group, the Gaming Technologies Association (GTA).
According to the Gaming Technologies Association of Australia, New South Wales is listed as the state or territory with the second-most gaming machines worldwide, behind only Nevada. New South Wales operates 95,000 gaming machines, while Nevada has just over 198,000 of them.
New South Wales is an Australian state in the southeastern portion of the country. Its capital is Sydney, the most populous city in Australia. The population of the state is 7.4 million people, with 4.67 of those living in the Greater Sydney municipal area. Nevada, on the other hand, has a population of 2.76 million people.
Australian Gaming Fascination
Australia as a whole is one of the most gambling-friendly countries in the world. It operates the 6th most gaming machines on the planet. Australians call their slot machines either “poker machines” or “pokies”. These are the subject of much debate among Aussies these days, as problem gambling has a major grip on the country.
Like the people of New Jersey, one of the major topics for politicians in Australia in 2013 and 2014 is the subject of self-exclusion laws. These rules allow players to ban themselves from casinos by signing up for a list, making a decision in their quieter moments they might not make when the competitive juices are flowing and they want to gamble for thrills.
Country with 6th Most Gaming Machines
Australia’s placement on the list in sixth place is significant, because it has a much lower population than the countries in the Top 5. Australia only has a total population of 22.68 million people or so, which makes their high number of gaming machines way out of proportion to other nationalities. For instance, it has more gaming machines than #8 and #9 on the list, Canada and Mexico, which have a combined population of 142 million people.
It is no coincidence that the richest man in Australia at the moment, James Packer, owns the largest land-based gaming company in the country, Crown Group Limited. If one adjusts for population, the Aussie machine count is exceeded only by tiny resort nations like Monaco, Aruba, and Sint Maarten.
Japan is another interesting case. While it technically does not have gambling machines, their pachinko parlors have a roundabout form of gambling. If this is included, Japan would have the most gaming machines on Earth.
Australia Repeals Anti-Gaming Laws
The report on gaming machines appears only 4 weeks after the conservative Coalition government repealed a host of gaming reform laws, after their victory in the national elections in September. Coalition candidates ran on the idea they would get rid of bad liberal institutions and replace them with more sensible policies.
In response, the new administration has created regulatory bodies that are staffed by experts from the gaming industry itself, in essence allowing the industry to police itself. Reformists and those concerned about problem gambling have cried foul about the gaming law repeals.
New South Wales University
Opponents of Gambling Are Critical
Reverend Tim Costello, head of the Australian Churches Gambling Taskforce, said, “It’s a national disgrace, and Australia, and particularly NSW, should be profoundly ashamed of this. When you think back in 1999, the productivity commission asserted that we have 20% of the world’s fast-playing gaming machines, not including the pachinkos or all these toy machines. The fact that we’re still in this position is a failure of both national and state policy.”
Those concerned about gambling addiction tend to target slot machines, because they have a high house edge and play quick hands. A person can hit spin on the pokies many times per minute, while a hand of blackjack or a spin at the roulette wheel takes more time to complete. With random number generators and the auto-spin feature, slots gamblers can play at increasingly rapid speeds. Recent laws in Australia had set limits on player access to ATM machines, giving them time to reconsider whether they want to withdraw money from the bank account which might be earmarked for their family’s mortgage or car payment.
Australia’s Stable Gaming Laws
New South Wales Time
The reversal of many policies should open the door for foreign gaming interests to have a new era of prosperity in the country. Gaming companies, especially those from the UK, have been investing in Australia’s gambling industry over the past few years. Despite current actions, they enjoy the relatively stable gaming laws in the country. Many of the big companies are trying to diversify, because the United Kingdom may pass a tax at the end of the 2014 which will impose a 15% fee on all revenues taken from gamblers inside the UK.
New South Wales Poker Machines Online
One might wonder why the foreign companies stand to gain, but local Australian online gambling laws make it illegal for Aussie companies to sign up citizens. The laws do not ban international sites from doing so, therefore all the top gaming websites are international. Some Australians complain about the foreigners buying up their industry, but Aussie lawmakers have made that a reality.