gambling revenue in clubs & hotels rise 15% By Tim Colebatch,...

gambling revenue in clubs & hotels rise 15% By Tim Colebatch, Economics Editor, Canberra
November 16, 2005

IT IS NOT just petrol prices that are denting retailers' sales. Gambling revenue in clubs and hotels has shot up 15 per cent in 2005, making up one-sixth of the entire increase in the nation's retail turnover.

Bureau of Statistics figures released yesterday show that in the first nine months of 2005, hotels and clubs earned a net $5.5 billion from gambling in all its forms, up from $4.8 billion a year earlier.

The surging growth in gambling revenue contrasts sharply with the insipid growth of retail sales in general. In the same period retail sales rose by just 3 per cent in value, and by 1.9 per cent in volume.

Pub gambling alone supplied 17 per cent of that growth. The value of sales for the rest of the retail sector rose just 2.4 per cent year on year.

The most rapid rise was in Victoria. Gambling revenue for Victorian hotels have shot up 38 per cent so far in 2005, from $455 million to $627 million.

Bureau officials caution that sampling changes can affect these results. But Victorian Treasury estimates also show pub gambling rising again, although less rapidly.

Revenue from electronic gaming machines in 2004-05 climbed by $31 million or 4 per cent, and the 2005-06 budget predicted a further jump of $89 million or 10.5 per cent. Figures released yesterday showed total gambling revenue rose 6 per cent in the September quarter from the same time last year.

The bureau's figures cover revenue from gaming machines, bingo, TAB and keno transactions within clubs and hotels. They do not include gambling revenue from TAB outlets or Crown Casino.

Gambling activity in Victoria's hotels dropped sharply after the introduction of smoking restrictions in 2003, but industry sources predicted the decline would be only temporary.

Nationally, the Bureau estimated that pub gambling accounted for 3.5 per cent of the nation's retail turnover. After rising by an average of 5.4 per cent in each of the previous three quarters, gambling revenues lost out to higher petrol prices, dropping 3.2 per cent in September.