Pokies and Slot Machine Information

Gaming expansion in USA?

March 29, 2006 on 9:26 pm | In Slot machine overviews |

A recent posting touched on the decision by the US State of Pennsylvania to allow the installation of up to 61,000 slot machines - mainly in and around racetracks. This creates a huge new business for gaming machine manufacturers.

Slot Machine Blog Article

Even after the addition of 61,000 slots, the number of gaming machines per capita in the USA will fall well short of what it is in Australia.

In 2004, the total estimated number of slot machines in the USA, including the 61,000 new devices approved for Pennsylvania, was: 770,408 (source: NWSource Article)

In Australia, the estimated total number of slot machines in 2005 was 197,107.

Country	Number of Slots	Av Slots/State*	Population	People per Slot Machine
Australia#	197,107	28,158	20,625,651	104.64
USA	770,408	20,261	298,399,775	387.32

*Average slots/State reflects the average number of slot machines present in each State which allows slots.

#Estimated breakdown of gaming machines by Australian State:

State	Number of Slots
New South Wales	100,308 (2005)
Queensland	45,000 (2005)
Victoria	29,500 (2005)
South Australia	14,799 (2004)
Australian Capital Territory	5,000 (2003-04)
Tasmania	~2,500
Northern Territory	~NT govt website offline
Western Australia	0
Total:	197,107

So what would it mean for the slot machine makers if the saturation of pokies in the USA eventually reach the level its already at in Australia? Money! And plenty of it. At present there are 387.32 people per slot machine in the USA, versus 104.64 people per slot machine in Australia.

To catch up, the USA would need to install 2,081,275 additional slot machines. The cost of each unit is highly variable, but an estimate of USD$11,000 per machine means there is potentially USD$22,893,981,000 ($22 billion dollars) in new business to be had.

Is it likely the USA will catch up to Australia in slot machine penetration? Its not going to happen soon, but it may at least catch up to half the difference in the current level - around $US10 billion in new gaming machine hardware business. Slot machines require maintenance and eventual replacement - another huge source of potential revenue.