Overall, annual gambling profits were down $128m - but that was because Covid-19 stalled access to pubs, clubs and casinos. We didn't anticipate that there'd be quite as vigourous a bounce back as there was over the December quarter,' Thornborough said. 'We've been tracking the pokie money through Covid, and we knew there was going to be an impact but we were surprised by the bounce-back once the pokie restrictions were eased. The quarterly spend was $252 million spent across 14,781 poker machines outside of casinos nationwide, the highest since records began in 2007.ĭepartment of Internal Affairs director of gambling Chris Thornborough said the results were unexpected. New figures from the Department of Internal Affairs show the spend on pokies last year was the equivalent of every adult spending $204 - and most of that was in the three months to December. The gambling figures for 2020 were the equivalent of every adult New Zealander spending $572, made up of $128 at casinos, $160 on Lotto, $80 at the TAB and a whopping $204 at the pokies.
