Brimbank has once again topped the state’s gaming expenditure tally, according to the latest Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation (VCGLR) data release.
The City of Brimbank has held this record for the past decade, totalling over $1.5 billion lost to electronic gaming machines (EGMs) since July 2007.
From July 2017 to June this year, the total player loss was found to be over $139.5 million; averaging $382,211, the median value of a unit in Brimbank, per day.
Compared to its surrounding municipalities in the west, Brimbank exceeded the second-worst Wyndham by close to $34 million.
Brimbank currently has 15 venues in operation, with the maximum number of 953 EGMs available to play.
The Kealba Hotel was found to be the biggest culprit, contributing almost 25% of the overall expenditure, followed by the Watergardens Hotel, which contributed close to 22%.
The City of Brimbank Council has long been aware of the gambling addiction and growing issue, but has had no luck in government reforms as yet.
Currently, the council is lobbying for stricter regulations including lowering maximum bets from $5 to $1, increasing the minimum closing period of venues from four hours to eight hours, and introducing ‘a sinking cap’ on the number of EGMs in Brimbank.
If passed, this ‘sinking cap’ would mean that if one EGM is removed, it could not be relocated to another venue.
In the metropolitan region, local government areas Casey and Greater Dandenong ranked next, at $131.5 million and $121.4 million expenditures respectively.
In the country region, the City of Greater Geelong recorded a total of $118.8 million lost from 1,305 EGMs at 26 venues.
Geelong surpassed the second-worst country city, Ballarat, by over $63 million, and the third-worst, Bendigo, by close to $70 million.
Some have argued the socio-economic status of each local government area plays a part in how much money is spent and lost to gambling.
In the 2016 Census, Brimbank measured 921 on the Socio-Economic Index for Areas (SEIFA) scale; the third lowest of the state, while Geelong measured 994; three less than the average.
Generally, the lower the SEIFA rank, the greater the city is disadvantaged.
Gaming expenditure totals are based on electronic data files received from monitoring licensees, and is collated annually by the VCGLR.
Photo by Antoine Taveneaux available at Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0.
