Slots to smartphones: Pandemic sends Australia’s gambling problem online

Japan Today | Sep 29, 2022 at 8:15 PM
  • For Rhys Wareham, a coffee industry technician from Sydney, the start of COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020 did not just mean staying home, but having to stop visiting the pub every afternoon to gamble on poker machines.
  • Already the world’s biggest gambling nation in terms of loss per person, Australia has seen a shift in betting behavior since the pandemic-forced closure of public venues.