Australia's Gambling Industries - Productivity Commission

Table P.3
Concentration of outlays on commercial gambling, Australia a
Gambling type
Top 10% of
spenders share
of aggregate
outlay
Top 5% of
spenders share
of aggregate
outlay
Ratio of median
to mean
Mean outlay of
the top 10% of
spenders
% % ratio $
Gaming machines 76.7 62.8 0.24 7 750
Wagering 82.1 64.6 0.16 10 011
Scratchies 56.3 41.7 0.33 409
Lotteries 39.0 33.1 0.63 1 498
Casino table games 78.7 64.8 0.13 12 532
All commercial gambling 72.9 59.4 0.33 10 377
a Based on outlays of gamblers, not player losses.
Source: PC National Gambling Survey.
Figure P.1
Distribution of commercial gambling outlays
70.0
60.0
50.0
Frequency
40.0
30.0
20.0
10.0
0.0
>7000
>6500 to 7000
>6000 to 6500
>5500 to 6000
>5000 to 5500
>4500 to 5000
>4000 to 4500
>3500 to 4000
>3000 to 3500
>2500 to 3000
>2000 to 2500
>1500 to 2000
>1000 to 1500
>500 to 1000
>0 to 500
Outlay $
a These data are outlays on commercial gambling (not player losses) from the PC National Gambling Survey,
and exclude private games for money and raffles. These data have not been adjusted to take account of
under enumeration of gambling expenditure.
Data source: PC National Gambling Survey.
One view is that gambling is like other consumer goods in showing such a pattern
of concentrated consumer spending. Some data on US lotteries was provided to the
Commission to support this and to infer that such a pattern would be similar for
other gambling products. According to this view, the concept of problem gambling
SPENDING BY
PROBLEM GAMBLERS
P.5