Is Gambling a Tradition in Australia?

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According to Charles Livingstone, a senior lecturer from Monash University in Melbourne, pokie machines can be found on almost every street corner in Australia! Australia’s Gross Gambling Yield in Australia is the highest in the world, with about 23,6 billion dollars for the 2016-2017 accounting year, which is the highest rate per country, even though there are no global gambling capitals in Australia; unlike the US with its Vegas and Atlantic City, or China with Macau.

From the second half of the XX Century onwards, Australia was building up its GGY figures; with lots of great help from the government, which allowed poker machines to be placed in pubs and hotels in 1990. The studies show that only about 240,000 poker machines around the world are placed beyond gambling venues and the overwhelming majority of them (more than 180,000) are in Australian hotels, pubs, and exclusive pokie clubs. There are more poker machines in New South Wales than there are Koalas in the whole of Australia. And the question is, can we say that gambling is an Australian tradition?

Defining a Concept

With the rapid growth of the Australian gambling industry, it has become apparent that while most countries are moving towards stricter regulation of gambling, the people of Oz are moving the other way, making a profit from gambling; of course, making it legal, to begin with! Gambling activities are certainly quite popular in Australia, and many people gamble there freely, spending more than a thousand dollars a year per adult. The reason for this is simple: because it’s legal, and you don’t need to travel anywhere to gamble. Slot machines and many other forms of gambling are freely available, and there is no fuss around playing them as much as one wants.

Is smoking weed and visiting the red light district a tradition in Amsterdam? We don’t think it’s a good thing to say that. And more: we believe that actually a good thing that the Dutch and Australian governments prefer to regulate all types of activities, instead of just shunning them and pretending they don’t exist, thereby allowing shady dealers to evade the taxes they should be paying. No, gambling is not an Australian tradition, but it’s a social concept that appeared long ago, and no one sees any reason in changing that concept forcibly, because it will change sooner or later in a natural way.

Why Australians Gamble So Much and Is It a Problem?

With about $1,250 spent on gambling per adult in 2016-2017, it’s clear that gambling is a significant part of the lives of the majority of Australians. It’s not a surprise, since Aussies have pokies literally everywhere, and many of them have admitted to having been lured by the flashy lights and huge jackpots. People lose thousands of dollars per gambling session and hundreds of thousands per year; and yet they still believe their huge life-changing win is yet to come! And here’s the most important thing — this is no different from any other country where gambling has been legalized. Problem gambling is a huge issue in the United States, the United Kingdom, and many other countries; but in Australia, it is much more, so to say, transparent. We’re not talking about the kind of transparency where you can easily find out how the casinos work; but more that you can see people gambling every day without ever stepping into a casino!

From one point of view, people tend to spend more money per game session while they’re gambling in designated places, like casinos. But from the other perspective — people will play much more frequent when they don’t need to travel anywhere, dress up or prepare themselves. Bars and pokie clubs present gamblers with the opportunity to play whenever they want, and that’s what people frown upon. How many of you had tried gambling in bars just to win and yell something happily in the lines of “This round is on me, pals?” This behavior surely isn’t a problem, either for you or for your mates. It’s fun and entertaining, and you cannot upset anyone with it. Or can you?

Let’s speculate, what if a problem gambler sat near you having a casual beer after the day’s work, and seeing you win caused him to make a bet? What if this bet resulted in a further breakdown and all the progress they made was wiped out? Well, there’s a simple solution for such cases, and this solution is online casinos!

Online Casinos vs Pokies in Bars

When it comes to the accessibility and convenience of gambling, nothing can be better than an online casino! And to play at most online casinos you don’t even need to get off the couch, make a few clicks on your smartphone, and you’re good to go! And don’t forget that you won’t offend anyone by playing who-knows-what on your smartphone! It might be either an online casino, some kind of fruit slice game, or even a three-in-a-row, and nobody cares about it unless you start pointing your smartphone to people’s faces and yelling that you have won or lost! It’s almost a perfect substitute for pokies in bars; since by playing from the comfort of your home you won’t upset anyone, and online casinos are bound by strict regulations regarding responsible gambling.

Have you ever thought about asking a bartender to throw you out of the bar in case you play for more than an hour in a row? Or maybe you can ask someone to sit next to you and restrict you from placing bets higher than a certain amount? This is not going to happen in any land-based venue, but it’s easily achievable in an online casino! You can put a daily, weekly, or monthly limit on your deposits and losses, limit your bet size or gaming session duration, all by contacting the customer support service of your chosen online gambling venue.

Have you ever seen a member of a land-based casino staff explaining to anyone how to quit gambling? Nope, you won’t find such a thing anywhere! Because it’s illogical for a casino to tell you that. But for online pokies sites, there is no option. They have to abide by the rules of the international responsible gambling policy, by providing vast explanations about every relevant topic on their websites; as well as URLs of the most popular and effective organizations, who are able to help players when their gambling habits end up spinning out of control.

What’s the Crucial Advantage of Online Pokies?

The best thing about any online activity is that it eventually becomes casual. If you’re in a brick-and-mortar casino, or even in a pokies club — there’s only one reason for you to be here!  So with casino websites, you can literally do whatever you want, and quit whenever you feel like it! It’s not as you’ve traveled for some time to get to the website, prepared yourself, or met up with your friends to spend some time at a poker table. Stopping to play online pokies is way easier; because you know for sure that you can continue whenever you want, thus destroying any psychological need to squeeze every gaming session dry!

Except for all the aforementioned advantages, online gambling has one more thing to boast of: huge bonuses. No matter how hard the land-based venues try, they simply cannot match online casinos in their generosity; since it’s way less expensive to maintain a website in comparison to a real place, with its rent, multiple taxes, staff, and other things. If you’re concerned about keeping your habits under control and not causing anyone troubles while you play pokies — play them online! And don’t forget, of course, that responsible gambling is the key to long-lasting entertainment.