If you’d ever wondered about just how many pokies there are in Australia or how many of us are playing them, this is the section for you! We’ve put together a few of the most interesting and important facts and figures about pokie in Australia, so have a read and see if any come as a surprise to you.
Do remember though, with payout rates that are always lower than 100% there’s only one long-term winner – and that’s the house!
In Figures:
- More than 20% of all the world’s pokies are located in Australia
- Across the country there are nearly 200,000 machines in operation
- Well over half of all Australia’s pokies are in NSW
- As there are 20.2 million people in Australia, there’s one Pokie per 101 citizens!
- Over a third of all adults in the country play pokies
- Every year, up to $10 billion is lost on pokies by their players
- There are around 300,000 people in Australia with gambling problems
- Payout percentages average around 90% nationwide
- You’ve a 1 in 50 million chance of hitting a jackpot playing one line
- Increase to 20 lines and the odds are 1 in 2.5 million
- Pubs cannot offer jackpots over $10,000
- On average, pokie players lose $380 every 12-months
- Those with gambling problems lose an average of $12,000 every 12-months
The Facts
You’ll notice the same fact repeated over and over again throughout this site – the house always wins! Whenever the odds are below 100% – which is always – you will never, ever come out better-off by playing over the long term. If you play for long enough, you always find yourself with less money than when you started…always!
Sure you might be one of the lucky few that hits the biggest jackpot first time around, but you’re millions of times more likely to come out with nothing or less than nothing.
And the more you play, the most you lose – it’s as simple as that!
Another fact that so many seem unable to digest is the way in which you have no control over the odds and the odds never, ever change. Each time the reels spin, the odds are exactly the same as they were on the last spin and will be in a thousand spin’s time. As such, there’s no sense in putting up with a losing streak because you think the machine is ‘primed’ to pay out soon enough – it isn’t and you won’t be happy with the outcome.
What’s more, there isn’t a tactic or trick in the world you can try out to tip the odds in your favour – they are as they are and you just have to accept them!
So, What’s the Point?
The point is simple and works a bit like the lottery – you know your odds of winning are tiny, but there’s no harm in investing a token sum to see if your luck comes out. With pokies it’s the same – the house always wins but from time to time, they might share a bit of their success with you.
This is why habitual playing is always, 100% of the time a terrible thing. But to the contrary, an occasional bit of fun for a few dollars can be quite the thrill!
