The losses generated by Victorian residents to online bookmakers rose to hundreds of millions of dollars during the coronavirus lockdown, with the figures rising up to 35% on the levels registered before the pandemic.
Over AU$1.4 billion were lost by the residents of Victoria on online gambling and sports betting during the second half of 2020. The figure represented an AU$375-million increase on the same period a year earlier during the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, while an extensive four-month lockdown forcing retail gambling venues to remain shut for a lengthy period of time.
Local campaigners seeking a gambling reform in the state revealed that most of the excessive increase in Victorian residents’ losses was spent online. According to campaigners, the rise in the registered losses was driven at least partly by the aggressive marketing campaigns used by some gambling operators. Gambling reform supporters have also renewed calls for further restrictions on the gambling sector’s ability to advertise its services on television and online media channels.
The claims of aggressive advertising during the Covid-19 lockdowns have been rejected by gambling operators, who said there is not enough evidence to support this information.
Local Punters’ Losses on Poker Machines Also Rose Since Venues’ Reopening
The Government of the state of Victoria published its latest mid-year financial report featuring gambling tax revenue figures for the period from June to December 2020 and revealed the scale of online losses generated by local punters during the months of lockdown.
The information has come after news that the corporate bookmakers, most of which are owned by overseas companies, generated market value estimated at billions of dollars on the backs of their customers in the past year.
As Casino Guardian has recently revealed, the increase in the daily losses generated by Victorian residents while playing on poker machines since the reopening of the venues at the end of 2020 continued in February 2021. According to the latest data provided by the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation, local punters have spent almost AU$8 million on a daily basis on pokies.
Margaret Quixley, the acting executive director of the Alliance for Gambling Reform (AGR), shared with The Age that she was not surprised by the extent of losses generated by Victorian punters online in 2020. According to her, Australia should have implemented a stricter approach as the UK did, with the gambling industry agreeing on an advertising moratorium under rising political pressure as the country entered its first lockdown a year ago.
Furthermore, Ms Quixley warned that the dangers originating from the big losses in the state of Victoria could be more concentrated among fewer people – the ones who are more inclined to gamble online. She said that, according to evidence, young male gamblers are more inclined to open a new betting account or gamble more intensely.
- Author
Daniel Williams
