Gambling in Australia

Even gambling is kind of a sport in Australia and millions of Australian love it. Sounds weird to Europeans and therefore here some more details.

First of all Australia is the land of clubs. There are thousands of clubs as for example a fire brigade club, a club for retirees, a bowling club (btw. you play it on artificial turf), a club for fishermen, surfing club etc.

Those clubs have a social function and earn money just offering beverages and gambling facilities. The bigger clubs have gambling halls with hundreds, no even thousands of one-arm bandits. And Australians are particular attracted by them. There are clubs in which 20.000 Australians gamble per night. You can find in those clubs all kind of entertainment: cinemas, restaurants, sport facilities, playgrounds for kids etc. Those clubs are part of huge industry, which make huge profit and guarantee thousands of work places. This is only possible as Australians are the biggest gamblers. The average Australians gambles 2.000 dollars per year. Their favorites are poker machines, which they call ‘Pokies’.

This does not sound too extreme. However, listen to those numbers to understand the passion for gambling in Australia. In Australian is 1% of the world’s population and at the same time there are 20% of all gambling machines in the world.