Australian gamblers loss in online sports betting swelled A$3.2 billion or 80 percent to A$7.1 billion from 2019, the year before lockdowns began, to 2021.
For Rhys Wareham, a coffee industry technician from Sydney, the start of COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020 did not just mean staying home, but having to stop visiting the pub every afternoon to gamble on poker machines.
Already the world's biggest gambling nation in terms of loss per person, Australia has seen a shift in betting behavior since the pandemic-forced closure of public venues.
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