It’s New South Wales Gambling Awareness week and people are being urged to check in on their gambling habits.

Australians spend around $23 billion on gambling each year and around half of that is lost on poker machines.

With 20 per cent of the world’s pokies in Australia, it doesn’t necessarily come as surprise.

Gambling researcher Charles Livingstone tells John Stanely, on average, Australians lose $1200 per person on gambling each year.

But he says the harms are varying.

“The reality is that different forms of gambling have different harm rates.

“The gambling harm rates associated with lotteries is minuscule… on the other hand, 30 per cent of the people who gamble weekly on poker machines end up in trouble.

“41 per cent of the people who gamble regularly on horse racing end up in strife.”

Click PLAY below to hear the full interview 

For more information on responsible gambling, click HERE