I am not much of a gambler, but from what I see gambling is something that is very common here.
Lotteries
Gold Lotto is one example of this form of gambling, you select SIX numbers, and hope they come up in the draw. Get three of them right with one of the supplementary numbers and you win a fifth dividend. Draw number 3003 on Saturday would have given the winner $32.15…
You can check the results every week here: www.goldencasket.com
Poker Machines
The poker machines in all the local clubs are another example of gambling in most parts of Australia. Western Australia is the lucky State in this respect, as they don’t allow them.
Governments use gambling as a source of tax revenue.
Victoria alone will receive more than $1 billion from suburban poker machines in tax revenue. That is more than half of the total gambling taxes of about $1.7 billion going into Treasury coffers.
Casinos
There are a few casinos in Australia, and again the governments take their cut 🙂
A licence fee to operate a Casino in Victoria was $358.4 million in 2008, plus 21.25% of gross gaming revenue !!
Bottom line… gambling is big business