Down the drain it goes

August 14, 2025

Have you ever met a professional gambler? Someone who makes a living by betting. If you have, they are almost certainly someone who follows horse racing very closely or has spectacular skills with cards. You will have never met anyone who makes a living exclusively from playing poker machines. Oh yes, you might have met someone who won a big jackpot once, just as you might have met a lottery winner, but unless you are in the money laundering business you can't guarantee collecting wins on a regular basis.

New South Wales has 37% of the poker machines in the world that aren't in casinos (and a few more that are), and estimated losses for the first three months of the year was $2.17 billion. That's losses - money left behind after people have collected their winnings.

Down the gurgler.

So how does this relate to Oberon? Liquor and Gaming NSW releases quarterly loss figures across the state (well, they are supposed to but at the date this was written the most recent figures were for February, 2025). The numbers for Oberon LGA can't be determined exactly, because the department amalgamates areas with fewer than a certain number of machines - for clubs it's Oberon and Blue Mountains and for hotels it's Oberon, Lithgow and Blue Mountains - but for the purpose here averages per resident are good enough.

According to the the latest census, the Oberon LGA has 5,600 residents - that's everyone of all ages - so that's the place to start.

$4,168,577 profit by hotels spread across 104,543 residents gives losses per person of $40, or $223,296 across the Oberon LGA.

For clubs, it's $3,302,137 profit across 83,701 residents, giving losses again of about $40 per person or $220,929 for the LGA.

Remember, those numbers are calculated on total number of residents, and a very large number don't play the pokies at all.

To put the total of $444,525 for a quarter into perspective, it's $1,776,900 for a year and Oberon Council's budget for the whole of 2025/26 has allowed $660,395 for the maintenance of all sealed roads in the LGA, with half of that coming from grants. The money disappearing into pokies would fill a lot of potholes.

The argument is often made that for a pub or club to be profitable they need the money gobbling machines, but the O'Connell Hotel seems to be doing quite well after reopening with no pokies and there was a rumour that one source of the recent money problems at Oberon RSL was the purchase of additional machines that nobody seems to play.

Losses to poker machines are a significant problem in many parts of NSW, in some cases leading to widespread financial hardship. So what can you do? Like the slogan says, "Gamble responsibly". Allow yourself a budget for entertaining yourself with a flutter, don't exceed the budget, never chase losses and don't bet what you can't afford to lose.

Disclaimer - I used to be a successful punter on horse racing, meaning that I won money almost every week. To make good money, however, requires a large pool of money (you make your money on short-priced horses, not 100-1 roughies, so you need several thousand dollars in the pool to do well). It also requires a lot of time to study the form guide and decide where to place your money for what is called "a value bet". I didn't give up my day job.

Statisticians have a thing they call "statistical significance", which is a way to decide if two numbers are really different or just a coincidence. There is no significant difference between the chance of winning Lotto and zero, so in theory you don't improve your chances of winning by buying a ticket. Years studying stats at university but I still buy Lotto tickets each week. The cost is relatively small (a cup of take-away coffee a week, and never bet what you can't afford to lose) and the possible win can be great (I almost break even over a year).

Oberon Matters does not accept gambling advertising.