The Australian casinos
In Monaco, citizens are forbidden from the local Monte Carlo casino – and the famous venue rakes in only tourists’ dollars, not locals’. No such regulation exists in Australia, so which casinos bring in a home-town crowd?
1.4 million Australian adults (7.8%) gambled on poker machines or table games at a casino—whether locally, out of town, or overseas—within the last 12 months, the latest Gambling Monitor from Roy Morgan Research shows.
The Gold Coast has the highest proportion of local residents who gambled at the home-town casino Jupiters (12.0%), while Sydney has the lowest (3.1%).
Other casinos attracting local gamblers include Jupiters Townsvillle (with 10.6% of residents gambling there in the past year), Crown Perth (9.1%), Skycity in Adelaide (8.5%) and Wrest Point Casino in Hobart (7.1%).
% of residents gambling at home-town casino
Source: Roy Morgan Single Source (Australia), October 2013 – September 2014, sample = 15,431 Australians aged 18+
In the last 12 months, 6.7% of Melburnians gambled at Crown Melbourne, making it the casino with the greatest number of locals gambling there: 229,000.
In Brisbane, only 66,000 adult residents (3.9%) gambled at the local Treasury Casino—but another 56,000 made the trip down to Jupiters Gold Coast.
Angela Smith, Group Account Director, Roy Morgan Research, says:
“After 2013’s stoush in Sydney, Echo Entertainment and Crown Resorts are again competing for the right to develop a billion-dollar-plus casino complex, this time at Brisbane’s Queens Wharf. Both will be pitching the economic value of their proposals in terms of tourism and tax revenue, but the Queensland State Government will also need to weigh up the impact on locals.
“A large proportion of Brisbane’s casino-goers currently head south to Jupiters Gold Coast rather than go to their local Treasury casino. Both of these are now owned by Echo, so competition between the two has not been a concern—but that could well change if Crown gets the go-ahead for the new Brisbane offering.
“Roy Morgan’s Gambling Currency Report provides an overview of the gambling industry, measuring size of total gambling market and its 3 main components: Gaming, Wagering and Lotteries/ Scratch tickets, and changes over time. The report also looks at participation, cross-category participation and internet usage.”