Tasmanians lost more than $200m on pokies last financial year

Tasmanians lost $208.27 million to poker machines in 2025-26, or around $360 per person, a 6.9 per cent increase on last financial year.

According to the state's Treasury Department, which has published monthly figures for the last 15 years, it surpasses 2011-12, when $208.15 million was lost.

Over those 15 years, Tasmanians have lost $2.79 billion.

While pokies losses decreased in the years leading up to COVID, they have risen since then.

Independent MP Meg Webb said the amount lost last year was "horrifying".

"This is not theoretical harm, it is real-world impacts for Tasmanian families, including increases in homelessness, mental health crises, domestic violence, poverty, crime and loss of employment and education opportunities," Ms Webb said.

"We can only conclude the Rockliff government is causing deliberate harm to Tasmanians to deliver skyrocketing super profits to its donor mates."

Mark Kempster, of the Alliance for Gambling Reform, said the data "should alarm every single Tasmanian".

"In a time where we are facing a generation-altering cost of living crisis, this is a number that every member of the state Liberal government and Labor opposition in Tasmania should be truly ashamed of," Mr Kempster said.

Acting Premier Guy Barnett said the government was focusing on its harm minimisation measures.

"Those reforms are substantial and ongoing,"

Mr Barnett said.

Government ditches pokies card

The new figures come as the Tasmanian Government ditches its plans for a mandatory cashless gaming card with pre-set limits, which gambling harm experts say would be the "gold standard".

It will instead pursue other measures, including a cashless ticket system, installing ATMs in venues, longer closing hours for venues, and increasing the availability of self-exclusion programs.

This week, the ABC published letters showing the Liquor and Gaming Commission has warned the government that the plan could create "greater harm".

Treasurer Eric Abetz said the reforms are proportional, practical and have "respect for personal agency".

"It is critical to look at the package as a whole, with each measure reinforcing the others, rather than as isolated initiatives," Mr Abetz wrote

Tasmanian losses lag other states.

Tasmania's $360 loss per person in 2025-26 does not make it the jurisdiction with the highest per-capita losses.

Over the same period, $4 billion was lost to poker machines in Queensland, or just over $700 per person.

$9.3 billion was lost to pokies in New South Wales in 2025 — more than $1,000 per person.

As part of 2023 reforms to the state's pokies licensing model, venues can keep a greater share of the revenue their machines generate.

Meg Webb pointed to those changes as creating a more "competitive environment" and contributing to the increase in losses

"This is what happens when a government captured by vested interests ignores all expert evidence to inform public health and consumer protection decisions and instead allows a rapacious industry to write its own regulatory rules," she said.