{"id":24701,"date":"2021-11-19T12:07:55","date_gmt":"2021-11-19T15:07:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=24701"},"modified":"2026-04-23T13:39:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T16:39:31","slug":"wa-has-lowest-proportion-of-problem-gamblers-in-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wa-has-lowest-proportion-of-problem-gamblers-in-australia","title":{"rendered":"WA has lowest proportion of problem gamblers in Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>According to a report ordered by the WA Royal Commission, the state has a high proportion of gamblers but a low level of gambling-related harm due to fewer electronic gaming machines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Australia.- A report ordered by\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/crown-perth-money-was-more-important-than-rules-inquiry-hears\">WA Royal Commission<\/a>\u00a0has found that the proportion of gamblers in Western Australia is the highest in the country, but the level of gambling problems is lowest since the state has fewer electronic gaming machines due to a state ban on &#8220;pokies&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the report, approximately<strong>\u00a063 per cent of Western Australians gamble<\/strong>, compared with 56 per cent in other parts of Australia. However,<strong>\u00a0only 0.9 per cent of Western Australian gamblers are problem gamblers<\/strong>, compared with 2.3 per cent in other states and territories. Only 8.7 per cent of Western Australian gamblers play EGMs, compared with 17.3 per cent elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The report, made by\u00a0<strong>a team of CQUniversity gambling researchers led by Matthew Rockloff<\/strong>\u00a0found no evidence that electronic gaming machines (EGMs) played at Crown Perth caused more problem gambling than elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In September,\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wa-authorities-question-differences-between-pokies-and-egms\">the WA Royal Commission<\/a>\u00a0began to question whether there is any difference between pokies and electronic gaming machines (EGMs) as the former are banned in WA but EGMs are allowed in Crown Perth. Committee members acknowledged that\u00a0<strong>the two types of machines have a similar speed of play<\/strong>, although EGMs focus on the visual aspect and the ball drop speed is slower.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to a report ordered by the WA Royal Commission, the state has a high proportion of gamblers but a low level of gambling-related harm due to fewer electronic gaming machines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":21504,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"A report commissioned by the WA Royal Commission indicates Western Australia has the nation's highest proportion of gamblers but the lowest level of gambling-related harm, attributed to a state ban on \"pokies\" resulting in fewer electronic gaming machines (EGMs). The report found no evidence that EGMs at Crown Perth caused disproportionate problem gambling, prompting the Commission to question the functional distinction between \"pokies\" and EGMs given their similar speed of play.","focusai_entities":"WA Royal Commission, CQUniversity, Matthew Rockloff, Crown Perth","focusai_location":"Australia, Western Australia","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.95), product_ux (0.7), investor_analyst (0.85), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (0.95)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"EGM Regulatory Impact","query":"What are the potential implications for EGM licensing and deployment across other Australian jurisdictions if the WA Royal Commission formally redefines \"pokies\" and EGMs as functionally equivalent?"},{"label":"Harm Minimization Efficacy","query":"How might these findings on EGM prevalence and problem gambling rates influence future responsible gambling policy frameworks and investment in harm minimization technologies by operators and regulators?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,23876],"tags":[229,23911],"class_list":["post-24701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-social-news","tag-gambling","tag-gambling-regulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24701"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24704,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24701\/revisions\/24704"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}