Lottery tickets and scratch-off cards continue to grow in NSW

The sale of lottery tickets and scratch-off cards has been exponentially increasing in New South Wales, Australia, especially since a moratorium on their sale was lifted back in 2015. For what has been close to ten years now, these games of chance have proliferated across the market, with more companies showing interest in obtaining the necessary license to sell them.

The main sellers are newsagents, and although not all of them hold a lottery license, the majority do. BWS, a supermarket chain in the state, is also running a trial that will introduce lottery tickets and scratch-off cards as part of the company’s inventory. Yet, there are hundreds of outlets that are not newsagents in the first place, much like BWS, which are selling these games of chance.

According to reporting by ABC News, with 1,300 points of sale for such products, and 900 newsagents in total, at least 400 of the sellers in the state fall in the category of "other outlets," which most commonly means petrol stations, pharmacies, or liquor shops. What does this mean for consumers?

It does not bode well, argues Carol Bennett from the Gambling Reform Alliance, a problem gambling advocate, who has been urging the government and the public to pay more attention to gambling proliferation – lottery or otherwise. Bennett found it incongruous and even dangerous to offer these products in liquor stores or alongside alcoholic beverages, leading to what she said was a "pervasive culture that normalizes" gambling.

She also criticized the decision by BWS to sell these tickets, saying that it should not be the case that you can pick a six-pack and scoop up some lottery tickets at the same time.

"The more you are stocking them together as a package deal, it just creates that cumulative effect and sends a very strong message that this is all very normal," Bennett cautioned, cited by ABC News.

Australia is losing a fair bit to gambling, with even the lottery driving a significant part of those losses. On an annual basis, the losses are in the billions. According to Queensland’s Statistician’s Office, which published a report covering the 2020-21 FY just last year, Australians lost more than $7bn in that period alone.

These losses have most certainly increased since, making Bennett’s remarks all the more prescient and apt. Yet, the state tries to keep it cool. A Liquor & Gaming NSW told the media outfit that the sales of alcohol and lottery tickets are always limited to individuals of the legal gambling age and unlikely to cause harm. Yet, evidence from other markets indicates that certain age groups can be more vulnerable to becoming addicted to gambling.

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