It’s fair to say that pokies divide opinion in Australia depending on which side of the fence you’re on. On the one hand you’ve got the politicians who are so worried about the machines to the extent that they’re turning them into portable spying devices, whereas citizens themselves are constantly pumping more and more dollars into the things in order to try and hit the big jackpot.
Machines on the Queensland’s Sunshine Coast have seen a particular increase in customer spends, August seeing more than $12.4million being put into the machines, the highest monthly spend in the last two years. Last year saw $132m spent on the machines, and with the figure up to the end of August at $87m so far 2010, last year’s figures are set to be eclipsed.
The figures could be surprising as a recent report saw that Australian’s were moving from land-based to online gambling, but as long as these machines are still on offer to the customers they’re still going to make money. Well, up until online sites start to set up live in race betting on kangaroo racing, then everyone’ll be going online!
