GAMBLING
HOUSEHOLD EXPENDITURE SURVEY
From information obtained from the 1998-99 Household Expenditure Survey, it was estimated that the average weekly household expenditure on Gambling was $5.80 and that more than half of this ($3.47) was for Lotteries, lotto-style and 'instant money' games. However, it is believed that respondents to the survey tend to understate their gambling expenditure, so this result should be interpreted with caution.
Besides estimates of expenditure on Gambling, the survey also provided information about the characteristics of households which have this expenditure. It was estimated that there were 3,655,100 which had some expenditure on gambling during the two-week enumeration period in 1998-99. This figure was 51.3% of the total number of households (7,122,800). However, the percentage of households with gambling expenditure was higher than this for households with some characteristics, and lower for households with others. For example, 53.5% of households outside the eight capital cities had gambling expenditure, whereas the figure was only 50.0% for households within the eight capital cities. Following table 12.5, the incidence of gambling in 1998-99 is examined for various other household characteristics.
12.5 EXPENDITURE ON GAMBLING AT CONSTANT PRICES(a) - 1993-94 and 1998-99 |
|  |
| Average household
expenditure | Total household
expenditure | Number of
households
reporting
expenditure(b) | |
| 1993-94 | 1998-99 | 1993-94 | 1998-99 | 1998-99 | |
| $/week | $/week | $m/year | $m/year | '000 | |
| |
| Lotteries, lotto-style and 'instant money' games | 3.80 | 3.47 | 1 309.4 | 1 288.7 | 2 835.7 | |
| Other gambling | 1.92 | 2.33 | 662.3 | 865.3 | 1 935.1 | |
| Total | 5.70 | 5.80 | 1 967.8 | 2 154.0 | 3 655.1 | |
| Total expenditure on all products | 664.28 | 698.97 | 229 178.8 | 259 586.7 | 7 121.8 | |
| |
| (a) At 1998-99 prices. |
| (b) Households reporting expenditure in the two-week enumeration period. |
| Source: ABS data available on request, Household Expenditure Survey, 1993-94 and 1998-99. |
The states which had the highest percentages of households reporting gambling expenditure were Qld and WA with 55.4% and 53.2% respectively. The lowest percentages were recorded by the ACT with 45.6% and Tas with 46.3%.
The household composition with the highest percentage of households with gambling expenditure was Other couple families, that is households consisting of couples with families with no dependent children. There were 69.4% of these households which had gambling expenditure. The next highest percentage was recorded by Couple only households with 59.2%. The household compositions with the lowest percentages reporting gambling expenditure were One parent with dependent children only (34.5%), and Lone person households (38.9%).
For income quintile groups, the percentage of households with gambling expenditure increased progressively from 41.9% for the lowest (first) quintile up to 59.5% for the highest (fifth) quintile.
Household characteristics include characteristics of the reference person. For Household Expenditure Survey purposes, the reference person:
- in a one-person household is that person
- in a one-parent household is the parent
- in a couple household is the partner with the highest income.
Households can be grouped according to the age group of the reference person. The age group for which the highest percentage of households had gambling expenditure was 45-64 years. There were 59.1% of these households with gambling expenditure. The next highest percentage was the 53.9% recorded for the age group 65 years or more. The age groups with the lowest percentages of households reporting gambling expenditure were Less than 25 years (35.0%), and 25-34 years (42.0%).
Of households with the reference person born overseas in one of the main English-speaking countries, 57.4% reported some gambling expenditure. By comparison, the equivalent figure for households with the reference person born overseas in another country was only 42.3%. For households with an Australian-born reference person, 52.3% had some gambling expenditure.
In terms of the labour force status of the reference person, households with a Full-time employee as reference person had the highest percentage reporting gambling expenditure (54.0%). Households with a Part-time employee as reference person were next with 53.4%. By far the lowest percentage with gambling expenditure was the 28.3% recorded by households with an Unemployed reference person.
The overall percentage of households with an employed reference person having gambling expenditure was 53.2%. However, the percentage was higher than this for some occupations and lower for others. The highest percentages of households reporting gambling expenditure were recorded by households with a reference person who was an Intermediate clerical, sales or service worker (60.6%); or an Advanced clerical or service worker (60.4%). By comparison, the lowest percentages were recorded by households with a reference person who was a Professional (46.9%); or Elementary clerical, sales or service worker (49.8%).
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