Fears of reckless online gambling in Australia

With the country in lockdown, concerns are being raised over the number of people gambling online.

Australia.- There are growing fears of reckless online gambling in Australia with the country under strict lockdown measures due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

With pubs, clubs, bars and hotels remaining closed for the foreseeable future, an estimated 194,000 land-based poker machines are now out of action.

Australia Prime Minister Scott Morrison recently announced that pokies providers could lose around A$7.5billion during lockdown measures over the next six months in the country.

15-25 per cent of the population who use ‘pokies’ will not have access and therefore may switch to online gambling.

For high-risk gamblers, there may be a strong temptation to shift their gambling habit to reckless behaviour online, since the government will now allow people to withdraw up to A$20,000 from their superannuation accounts over this and the next financial year.

Early reports suggest that since lockdown measures spread around the world, online gambling has seen an increase in players.