Australians Top Biggest Gambling Loser List Again in 2016

H2 Gambling Capital (H2G) has released its latest findings on the state of the global gambling industry in 2016, and once again it was Australia which topped the list of biggest gambling losers with an average of $990 of losses per resident. A distant second was Singapore with $650, and then Ireland with around $500 per person.
The statistics have attracted the attention of Irish politicians, and commenting on its implications, Sinn Féin MEP Lynn Boylan, stated that while drinking and drug abuse issues have been tackled head on, problem gambling continues to be “relatively ignored”.
“Because it is not as visible as other problems, politicians and certain sections of the media seem to think that it is not a pressing matter. However, I think it is one of the gravest issues facing Irish society,” explained Bolan.
While the USA came in at 5th with a little over $400 of losses per person, it did top the list of losses per country worth a staggering $116.9 billion. Meanwhile China, whose only legal gambling resort of Macau is the world’s biggest gambling destination, came in at number 2 with $62.4 billion in losses, followed by Japan ($24.1bn), Italy ($19bn), Australia ($18.3bn), and the UK ($18bn). As a result, the USA currently accounts for around one-third of all the gambling industry profits generated in 2016.
Interestingly, most of the USA’s gambling losses took place at its land-based casinos, followed a way back by lotteries and then gaming machines. Alternatively, video poker machines accounted for around 50% of Australia’s gambling losses, while casinos were a distant second. Also sports and race wagering proved more popular than lotteries, and online gambling outpaced retail betting, which will only serve to strengthen the Aussie government’s resolve to stamp down on online betting operators.
In 2016, the worldwide gambling industry generated an estimated $385 billion in profits, according to H2G, with online gambling accounting for 11% of that total, and representing its fastest growing segment.