The Gaming Technologies Association has released its latest World Count of Gaming Machines, providing insight into the global industry through a snapshot of gaming machines worldwide.
The report specifies definitions of gaming machines, and their presence in casinos, clubs, pubs and racing venues, as well as some amusement parlours, restaurants, petrol stations, corner stores and cafes.
The GTA has been compiling the Count since 1999, providing two decades of comparative analysis.
In 2018 the number of (legally operated) machines around the world was 7,402,395.
Far and away the leader in rankings is Japan, again, with over 4.3 million machines, representing 58 per cent of the world’s total.
Japan also recorded the lowest number of people per machine of any country with population over 1 million, at 29 residents for each EGM.
As a mid-sized country with legal gaming in all jurisdictions Australia ranks highly on some of the scales, including fifth country overall by numbers, being 2.65 of the global total, with a noticeably low 128 people per machine.
New South Wales ranks as the eighth-highest jurisdiction anywhere for machine numbers, but at 95 people per machine does not make the count for the highest rates. The ACT and Northern Territory find the same rate, but with far lower overall numbers.
Germany and Italy each have more machines than Australia, with people per unit of 290 and 195 respectively.
The USA has 4.6 times the number of machines as Australia, amounting to 11.54 per cent of the global total, with 364 people per across the country. But several states report rates per population similar to that of NSW, including Louisiana (112), Mississippi (99), Montana (56), New Mexico (105), Oklahoma (53), and South Dakota (60).
The posterchild for EGMs in the USA – a country where most forms of gambling in almost all states are restricted or outlawed outside of the Native American casinos – is clearly Nevada, which sports about 18 per cent of America’s 898,974 gaming (‘slot’) machines, representing one machine for 18 actual residents of Sin City.
Nevada topped America’s four precincts that made the list of Top10 in machine per capita around the world, joined by China (Macau Special Administrative Region), Aruba, Monaco, Japan, Aland Islands, and Sint Marten at #1 with a gaming machine for every 13 people.
The full report is available through the GTA website HERE.