Western Australia is a unique part of Australia in many ways. It gets a special deal on the distribution of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). Its flora, fauna and cultural attributes are extraordinary.

And it has the lowest rate of gambling harm in the country.

Our recently published research on the gambling behaviour of Western Australians reinforces this.

It demonstrates that although Western Australians gamble as much as anyone else in Australia, they experience far fewer gambling problems.

Lessons from Western Australia

WA does not permit pokies (also known as electronic gaming machines) outside of a single casino in Perth. Unlike the rest of Australia, where pokies in pubs and clubs are ubiquitous, these social spaces in WA are pokie-free.

Western Australians, though, are keen lottery gamblers. But despite accounting for 10% of the amount spent on gambling in Australia, lotteries contribute around 1% of our gambling problems.

Pokies are a different kettle of fish: recent Australian research demonstrates poker machine gambling accounts for more than half of Australia’s gambling spend and a similar proportion of gambling problems.

Our analysis of data from the multi-year Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey shows overall gambling participation is higher in WA than in the rest of Australia (48% against 37%).

HILDA data........

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