No money left for a lottery ticket or the pokies?

A Roy Morgan Research media release yesterday shows a marked decline in gambling when comparing 2002 and 2008.
With increasing petrol and food prices eating further into the family budget, it seems there may be less money in Australian pockets for traditional forms of entertainment.

The percentage of Australians gambling in the last three months has declined from 73% in year ended December 2002 to 66% in year ended March 2008, according to the latest Roy Morgan Research Single Source data. Most forms of gambling have declined, including lottery tickets (down from 64% to 58%), poker machines (32% to 27%), betting (18 % to 16%) and Keno (11% to 9%). Casino games have remained stable at 4%.....

Frequency of gambling on poker machines has also declined, with less poker machine gamblers playing more than 13 times in the last three months (down from 10% in year ended December 2002 to 9% in year ended March 2008), and more playing one to three times in the last three months (up from 55% to 57%) or four to thirteen times (up from 34% to 35%).....

“Gambling participation and frequency has declined across all age, income and lifestage groups, indicating a broad cultural and lifestyle change within Australia. People spend more leisure time on the Internet and personal computers and less time on traditional leisure activities such as gambling.
"The only good news for hotels, clubs and casinos is that more Australians are dining at licensed premises, and that gambling is only one of many reasons for visiting a venue.”