Gambling Facts

Australians lose more money to gambling than any other country in the world - approximately $29 billion every year, largely from Australians who can least afford it.

Poker machines have taken $3 billion dollars from Victorians in 2022-23 alone, and over $100 billion since they were allowed into the state in 1992.

There are over 500,000 Australians living with the financial stress, relationship breakdown, family violence and mental illness that comes with poker machine addiction.

In the City of Greater Dandenong there are 928 poker machines that take $376,000 from our community every day.

Local gambling losses equal $87 million last year

In 2022-23, $137 million was lost to pokies in the 14 gambling venues in Greater Dandenong - equivalent to $1,089 per adult, and the highest rate of pokie losses in Victoria.

Since the introduction of pokies in Victoria in 1992-93, over $4 billion (2023 dollars) has been lost in Greater Dandenong alone - the equivalent of more than $78,000 per household.

The highest gambling losses are generally experienced by the least affluent communities. In 2022-23 for instance, losses to pokies in Boroondara - the wealthiest locality in Victoria - stood at $138 per adult. By contrast, average losses incurred by residents of Greater Dandenong - the least affluent locality in metropolitan Melbourne – were nearly nine times higher, at $1,089 per adult.

Thus, the residents of a community with one of the highest levels of gaming losses are also among the least able to bear such financial losses.

In addition to EGM losses, totaling $137 million in 2022-23, an estimated $119 million is lost each year by residents to other legal forms of gambling, bringing total annual gambling losses to $256 million in this municipality. This represents an average of $1,527 per adult, and approximately 4.4% of total personal incomes in Greater Dandenong. 

Total annual gambling losses typically account for approximately 4-8% of all incomes in Greater Dandenong. In Boroondara, losses are equal to just 0.3% of total income.

There are 928 pokies in Greater Dandenong

This is the fourth highest number of pokies in any Victorian municipality, and represents 7.4 pokies per 1,000 adults – substantially more than the Victorian figure of 5 per 1,000 adults.

Caps, or limits, upon the number of pokies were imposed by the Victorian Government in a selection of municipalities in 2001, including Greater Dandenong. Since then, the caps have been extended to other Victorian municipalities. The cap on pokie numbers in Greater Dandenong currently stands at 989, 59 more than the current number of pokies.

The real cost of gambling