Who gambles the most?

THE global gambling industry gathers in London this week for the annual ICE gaming conference. It should be a happy affair, with gross winnings (total take minus payouts, excluding expenses) of around $440 billion last year. Australians gamble (and lose) more than anyone else on a per-person basis, according to H2 Gambling Capital (H2GC), a British consultancy. The biggest chunk of this is spent on video poker machines, though tighter regulation in recent years has seen the country fall to sixth place in absolute terms. In Singapore casino gambling is favoured while Finns seem to prefer interactive gaming. (Macau does not feature in the rankings because its gambling revenue comes almost completely from tourists, largely from mainland China). America remains the world's biggest market, but its global share has fallen from nearly a third to a quarter in the past decade. This is partly because of a ban on most interactive gambling (sports betting and other games played on mobile phones, computers or interactive TV). Over the same period, China has risen from the tenth-biggest market to the second-largest, with losses of $76 billion. Simon Holliday of H2GC expects China to become the world's biggest market by 2020.