Pokies and Slot Machine Information

Smoking bans hit pokies turnover in New South Wales

April 30, 2008 on 12:25 pm | In Pokies in New South Wales | No Comments

New South Wales (NSW) is Australias largest state by population. It also has more slot machines (over 100,000) than almost any state on the planet.

In July 2007 smoking bans came into force in enclosed areas and we’re now able to see the results on gaming turnover.

“Figures from the Office of Liquor Gaming and Racing show that since the smoking ban was fully implemented in July last year, overall poker machine turnover in hotels has fallen 11 per cent, and 7 per cent in clubs.” – ABC news online.

Clubs in NSW exist to support community organisations – sports clubs and the like. They’re commercial entities designed to raise funds and support the particular organisation they represent. Pubs are highly commercialised venues – profit oriented and with no mandate for such a community focus.

We’ll look more closely at the drop in gaming turnover in clubs. 17.7% of people over the age of 16 in NSW smoke. Taking the figures at face value you’d expect that around 62% of smokers have abandoned their gambling habits. That is extremely unlikely though, its more likely that smokers in general simply represent a higher proportion of gaming machine players.

Another aspect is that smokers are also often paired with non-smoking partners. If one stops playing the pokies it’s more than likely their partner will as well.

The recent slowing of the world economy may also be having some impact. You would expect this to have the same percentage impact on pubs as well though.

Such a precipitous drop in turnover in club revenue compared to pub revenue is interesting. It’s possible that clubs attract more smokers, and therefore have more to lose. Demographics don’t support this though. It’s more logical to assume that pubs have just done a better job in preparing for the smoking bans through introduction of outdoor smoking areas or the like.

Evidence from Queensland, Australia shows that revenue does recover eventually. It may not ever reach the turnover per capita it reached before the bans were introduced – but turnover will increase to near normal levels.