Aussies continue to love a punt

Gambling, punting, wagering. Call it whatever you like but Australians lose more than $16 billiion a year on games of chance. In fact, every Australian household spends about $6 a week having a punt.

There are literally dozens of ways to have a punt but the ten most popular are the most traditional:

• Pokies rake in a cool $8.7 billion in pubs and clubs across the country.
• Casinos with gaming tables offering blackjack, routlette, craps, poker, and keno to name a few rake in $2.5 billion.
• The old stayer horses, net $3.2 billion.
• Dogs have a total turnover of $760 million.
• The trots make about $608 million.
• Lotteries across the country pull in $1.44 billion.
• Keno takes in $86 million.

While no one is sure how much we spend playing poker, other electronic casino style games or bet online.

Glen Munsie from TAB Sportsbet sees punters bet on 25 sports with the TAB making at least a billion dollars this year.

"Don't think for one moment you are going to turn that $1000 into $1million with one bet," said Glen.

"The two most important things to remember; if you're on a winning streak that's the time to bet up. If you're on a losing streak that's the time to bet down. You've just got to know yourself."

Reformed gambling addict "Shaun" was one punter who didn't know when to quit. It went from being fun to being an obsession, his drug, the pokies.

"It just hypnotises you. It's like being brainwashed. You see people beside you feed another $100 note into the machine and they win a major jackpot," he said.

"Conservatively it's cost me over $100,000. If I just look at the last 10 years I effectively could have saved $200 a week."

While there are 330,000 addicts like Shaun, clearly others are winning something - not getting hooked.

Professor John Crouch has crunched the numbers on our most popular bets. He reckons you've got a better chance of winning games of skill, not chance.

"If you're an ordinary mug punter betting on Lotto and Powerball, lotteries and poker machines there really is not a lot of skill involved in that and you shouldn't expect to win."

"Certainly a degree of skill is required for many of the games, but with games like lotto and keno and lotteries and poker machines there's not a great deal of skill required. Just a great deal of luck is required."

Just check out the odds of winning the jackpot in Powerball - one in 54 million, the pokies: one in 9.7 million, Keno the chances of a 10 number jackpot is one in 8.9 million, Lotto: one chance in 8 million, with the best chance of a win with a simple scratchie: one chance in 960,000.

Pretty scary odds when you consider the chances of getting hit by lightning is 1 in 1.6 million.

Whether skill or luck, there's no stopping Australians having a punt with gambling revenue expected to continue to grow every year.

Telephone Counselling
You can ring the Gambling Help Line for a free 24 hour anonymous counselling referral service:

• ACT: (02) 6247 0655
• New South Wales: 1800 633 635; TTY 1800 633 649
• Northern Territory: 1800 629 683
• Queensland: 1800 222 050
• South Australia: 1800 060 757
• Tasmania: 1800 000 973; TTY 1800 000 974
• Victoria: 1800 156 789
• Western Australia: 1800 622 112