Australian gambling statistics: every key number, sourced
Compiled by Bet Better · Updated July 2026 · Every figure carries its source and
reference year · Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 with attribution
Turnover is not loss. Most gambling statistics you'll see
conflate the two. Turnover is the amount staked; expenditure is the amount actually lost.
A bettor staking $100 a week has $5,200 of annual turnover, but their expected loss is a few hundred
dollars. Every figure on this page says which one it is.
The headline numbers
$31.5 billion
Lost by Australians across all gambling, 2022–23
Australian Gambling Statistics (QGSO), latest national edition
$1,555
Lost per adult per year — the highest per-capita gambling loss in the world
QGSO 2022–23; up 11.5% year on year
$23.3 billion
Staked (turnover) on sports and racing wagering, 2022–23
QGSO 2022–23
4.78%
Average bookmaker margin on head-to-head markets — what the bet actually costs
Bet Better margin study, 205,491 markets, 2026
3.16–5.78%
Margin range between bookmakers — an 83% cost difference for identical bets
Bet Better margin study, 31 bookmakers, 2026
~1 in 3
Australian adults who gamble online, led by sports and racing
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
The national picture
The canonical source for Australian gambling data is the Australian
Gambling Statistics, compiled annually since 1984 by the Queensland Government Statistician's Office in
cooperation with every state and territory government. Its latest national edition puts total Australian
gambling losses at approximately $31.5 billion for 2022–23 — roughly
$1,555 per adult, which remains the highest per-capita gambling loss of any country.
Within that, wagering on sports and racing saw about $23.3 billion staked (turnover) in
2022–23, with online channels taking a majority share of new wagering activity. The
Australian Institute of
Health and Welfare reports around one in three Australian adults now gambles online, led by sports
and race betting.
What a bet actually costs: measured, not estimated
National statistics tell you how much is lost in aggregate. They don't tell you the price of an
individual bet — the bookmaker's margin, built invisibly into the odds. We measured it directly:
205,491 head-to-head markets across 31 bookmakers over one month in 2026.
$4.78
Average amount the bookmaker keeps per $100 staked
Mean margin 4.78%, median 4.71%
$164 vs $300
Annual cost of identical $100/week betting at the cheapest vs the most expensive bookmaker
3.16% vs 5.78% average margin
~24%
How much more margin tennis carries than ice hockey — the priciest vs cheapest sport to bet
5.61% (WTA) vs 4.54% (NHL)
Method, per-bookmaker and per-sport tables: the full margin study.
Note these are head-to-head margins — multis, same-game multis and player props carry materially
higher margins, so 4.78% is a floor, not a ceiling.
Citing this page
Everything here is free to quote under CC BY 4.0.
For official national figures, cite the QGSO edition directly; for margin figures, cite:
Bet Better (2026). Bookmaker Margin Study & Australian Gambling Statistics reference.
https://betbetter.world/studies/australian-gambling-statistics
We also publish a free sports model API and an
open AFL dataset (206,722 player-match
records, also held by Harvard Dataverse).
18+. These numbers describe losses for a reason. The
average Australian adult loses $1,555 a year gambling, and the margin means the house wins on average by
construction. Nothing on this page is betting advice. If gambling is causing you harm, support is free and
confidential at Gambling Help Online or
on 1800 858 858.