{"id":27659,"date":"2022-02-28T10:12:28","date_gmt":"2022-02-28T13:12:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=27659"},"modified":"2026-04-23T10:57:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T13:57:17","slug":"player-losses-on-victoria-slots-reach-record-au251m-in-december","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/player-losses-on-victoria-slots-reach-record-au251m-in-december","title":{"rendered":"Player losses on Victoria slots reach record AU$251m in December"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Player losses on Victoria slot machines reached AU$251m\u00a0<\/strong>in the last month of 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Australia.-\u00a0The Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission (VGCCC)<\/strong>\u00a0has reported that player losses on slots, known in Australia as poker machines in Australia, reached AU$251m in December 2021. The record total came after authorities eased Covid-19 restrictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The previous record was set in December 2008 when the state recorded AU$250m in electronic gaming machine (EGM) losses. The VGCCC said state residents lost AU$244m in EGMs in January, despite a new outbreak of Covid-19 cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The biggest losses were concentrated in the poorest areas, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Relative Socioeconomic Deprivation Index (IRSD), which measures poverty based on factors such as employment and income levels and access to education and services. Five of Victoria’s 79 local governments with poker machines accounted for 25.81 per cent of the state’s poker losses over the past three months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city of Brimbank<\/a>, Melbourne\u2019s second-most disadvantaged local government area and the third-most disadvantaged in the state, recorded the highest losses,\u00a0Over November, December and January, people lost AU$42m on pokies<\/strong>, with almost AU$15m lost in December alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\u00a0Alliance for Gambling Reform\u00a0<\/strong>estimates that nearly 40 per cent of pokie losses come from high-risk gamblers. The problem is not new for Australia. Last December,\u00a0the Tasmanian Liquor and Gaming Commission<\/a>\u00a0revealed that losses on pokies increased from AU$79.5m in 2019-20 to AU$117.3m in 2020-21.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tim Costello, the Chief Advocate for the Alliance, <\/strong>stated: “Over just 31 days in December, Victorians lost over AU$250m to poker machines. This is by far the most money lost to poker machines in a single month ever \u2013 a record that should never have been broken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis comes right before January where another AU$222m was lost. It is a sobering reminder of just how dangerous this predatory industry is to our safety and wellbeing.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Costello added: \u201cHarm prevention measures like universal pre-commitment, reduced opening hours and abolishing losses disguised as wins would have a significant impact in reducing these losses and the harm felt in our state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe also need well-resourced educational campaigns aimed at bringing awareness to this ongoing crisis<\/strong>. If we are to successfully reduce the harm being caused by poker machines we need to bring the community along with us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Player losses on Victoria slot machines reached AU$251m\u00a0in the last month of 2021.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":10787,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Victoria, Australia, recorded unprecedented player losses on Electronic Gaming Machines (EGMs), reaching AU$251m in December 2021, following eased COVID-19 restrictions. These record GGR figures, concentrated in socio-economically disadvantaged areas, have prompted the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission (VGCCC) and advocacy groups to highlight the societal impact and call for enhanced harm prevention measures, including universal pre-commitment and reduced operational hours.","focusai_entities":"Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission, VGCCC, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Alliance for Gambling Reform, Tasmanian Liquor and Gaming Commission, Tim Costello","focusai_location":"Victoria, Australia, Melbourne, Brimbank, Tasmania","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.9), product_ux (0.7), tech_data (0.7), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Impact of Pre-commitment?","query":"What specific economic modelling has been conducted by the VGCCC or independent bodies to project the GGR impact and operational costs for operators if universal pre-commitment is mandated across Victoria's EGM sector?"},{"label":"Regulatory Framework Evolution?","query":"How do the proposed harm prevention measures in Victoria compare to existing responsible gambling frameworks in other mature iGaming jurisdictions, and what precedent might this set for future regulatory compliance globally?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,157,158],"tags":[229,23909],"class_list":["post-27659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-business-news","category-slider-home","tag-gambling","tag-slot-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27659","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=27659"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27666,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27659\/revisions\/27666"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}