Access advice to guide your steps
We spend a lot of time warning people about scams, and we should. Australians lost about $2.18 billion to scams in 2025, according to the ACCC's National Anti-Scam Centre.
Over a similar period, Australians lost about $36 billion to gambling. That's the Australia Institute's estimate for the 12 months to March 2026, and ABS national accounts data points to a record in the 2025-26 financial year as well.
Put those side by side and gambling losses are more than 16 times the reported losses to scams. That's around $690 million a week, compared with around $42 million.
Spring racing is a good moment to look at it. Last year, punters wagered about $247 million on the Melbourne Cup alone, and about $727 million across the Cup Carnival. That's turnover, not losses, but it shows how much money moves through one week in November.
We want to be fair about this, because the two numbers measure different things:
So we're not saying gambling is the same as fraud. We're saying that if you add up where household money quietly disappears each year, the legal product is far bigger than the illegal one. The Australia Institute notes that Australians' gambling losses in 2024-25 were larger than total household spending on electricity and gas.
The share of Australian adults who gamble online rose from about 8% in 2017 to about 33% in 2025. A betting account on your phone is a very different thing from a trip to the track, and it's open at 2am.
Scam losses have actually come down from their 2022 peak of $3.1 billion, helped by banks, telcos and regulators putting more effort into detection. Gambling losses have gone the other way, rising every year since COVID.
Both problems have drawn government attention, and both efforts are small next to the losses.
As a rough yardstick, $113 million over five years is about $22 million a year against $36 billion lost, or around six cents for every $100. Funding periods and what's included differ, and state governments fund gambling support too, so treat that as a sense of scale rather than a precise ratio.
We're financial planners, not moralists. Plenty of people enjoy a flutter on the Cup and it costs them nothing they'll miss. The planning question isn't whether you should, it's whether it's a decision or a drift.
If gambling is starting to cause harm for you or someone close to you, free, confidential support is available any time through Gambling Help Online on 1800 858 858 or gamblinghelponline.org.au. You can also block yourself from licensed online wagering sites through the national BetStop register.
If you'd like to talk through how a regular spend, big or small, fits into your wider plan, or you're worried about a scam, get in touch before you act. A conversation costs far less than a rushed decision.
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