Biggest Gambling Countries: Top 10 Ranked by Losses Per Adult

Australia remains, without question, the world’s number one gambling nation when measured by losses per adult. H2 Gambling Capital put the figure at US$958 in 2017, a quarter ahead of second-placed Hong Kong, and the gap has not closed since.

The latest national figures are starker. Australians lost about A$31.5 billion in 2022-23, roughly A$1,500 for every adult, and the Grattan Institute puts the average at A$1,635 per adult, the highest in the world.

The driving force is the “pokies”: slot machines embedded in pubs, clubs and dedicated venues. Australia has one of the highest densities of gambling machines anywhere, and most of its losses come from pokies and sports betting rather than casinos.

A full advertising ban, recommended by a parliamentary inquiry in 2023, has still not happened. The bill the federal government introduced in July 2026 caps television ads before 8.30pm and bans them in stadiums and on jerseys, but stops short of the total ban, and was sent to a Senate inquiry.

Hong Kong is second on H2 Gambling Capital’s per-adult table, at US$768 a year. What makes it unusual is how tightly the legal market is controlled: the Hong Kong Jockey Club is the only body authorised to offer horse racing, football betting and the Mark Six lottery, a near-total monopoly.

Despite this, illegal gambling remains widespread across the territory, which means the true losses are likely higher than the official figures suggest.

Singapore has one of the highest rates of gambling losses per adult in the world, at US$725 a year. It is a remarkable figure for a city-state with only two licensed casino resorts, Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa, and a single state-run operator, Singapore Pools, for lotteries and sports betting.

The government deliberately prices locals out: Singapore residents pay a casino entry levy of S$150 a day or S$3,000 a year, and the National Council on Problem Gambling’s surveys show problem gambling prevalence falling from 2.6 per cent in 2011 to below 1 per cent by 2017.

Gambling was introduced in Finland in the 1920s with the establishment of the state lottery, and the industry has grown considerably since. The average gambling loss per adult stands at US$515 a year on H2 Gambling Capital’s table.

A 2019 national study found that around 78 per cent of Finns aged 15 to 74 had gambled in the previous year, with 29 per cent gambling at least once a week. The most popular forms are lotto, scratch cards and slot machines, and people aged 25 to 44 are the most active group.

Finland is also mid-way through the biggest change in its gambling law for decades. The state monopoly Veikkaus is being opened up: a licensing system for online casino and betting operators was approved in 2025, and the licensed market opens at the start of 2027.

Gamblers in Ireland lose a sizeable US$490 per adult each year, reflecting a deeply embedded betting culture. For decades the country relied on outdated laws, parts of which dated from 1931 and 1956.

That has now changed. The Gambling Regulation Act 2024 created a single regulator, the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland, which was formally established in March 2025 and is phasing in licensing, advertising limits and a national self-exclusion register.

Ireland is also home to several major international gambling companies that have chosen Dublin as a base, which underlines its weight as a global gambling jurisdiction.

The average gambling loss per adult in New Zealand is US$454 a year, placing it firmly among the world’s most gambling-prone nations. Much like its neighbour Australia, New Zealand has a strong pokie culture, with machines widely available in pubs, clubs and TAB venues.

Online casinos were unregulated until 2026. The Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 now licenses up to 15 online casino brands, with licences issued from early 2027, and the regulations ban credit-card deposits, autoplay and affiliate marketing. Our guide to how New Zealand’s online casino licensing works covers the dates that matter.

The UK does not top the per-adult rankings, but it runs one of the largest and most mature regulated markets in the world. The Gambling Commission’s industry statistics put total gross gambling yield at £16.8 billion for April 2024 to March 2025, up 7.3 per cent, with the remote casino, betting and bingo sector at £7.8 billion, up 13.1 per cent.

Online is where the growth is. Remote operators reported 24.4 million active accounts at the end of the period, and the remote sector now takes close to half of all gambling yield once the National Lottery is included.

Advertising around sport remains the live political question, and the Commission’s 2023 White Paper reforms, from stake limits on online slots to financial vulnerability checks, have been rolling out since 2024.

Canada sits in the top ten on H2 Gambling Capital’s 2016 table at US$568 per adult, and most of that money runs through provincial lottery corporations, which hold the monopoly on gambling in every province. Roughly two-thirds of Canadians gamble in a given year, predominantly on lotteries.

Online is the part that is changing. Two provinces now run open, competitive online markets: AGCO-registered Ontario casinos since April 2022 and AGLC-registered Alberta casinos since July 2026. Elsewhere in Canada, the provincial platform is the regulated option.

Ontario alone produced $4.0 billion in operator revenue on $98.3 billion of wagers in 2025, and 91.1 per cent of its online players now use regulated sites. Read the full breakdown in our Ontario iGaming revenue report.

Italy is an often-overlooked gambling powerhouse with a rich heritage in the pastime. After loosening its gambling laws from 2006, it grew into one of Europe’s largest markets: Italians stake more than €150 billion a year and lose around €20 billion of it, which H2 Gambling Capital’s 2016 table put at US$517 per adult.

The country’s gambling culture stretches back centuries, and baccarat is usually traced to Italy. Today the money is in slots, lotteries and online play rather than casinos: Italy has only four licensed casinos, at Venice, Sanremo, Saint-Vincent and Campione d’Italia.

Spain rounds out the top ten at US$418 per adult on the 2016 table, with a distinctive gambling identity. Rather than gravitating towards slots and table games, Spaniards have a well-documented passion for sports betting, a natural outgrowth of the country’s sporting culture across football, tennis and motorsport.

Online gambling has been licensed nationally since 2012 under the regulator DGOJ, and since 2021 Spain has had some of the strictest advertising rules in Europe, confining most gambling ads to a late-night window and banning sponsorship on football shirts.