Australians dramatically curbed their gambling activity during the pandemic and gambling participation remains below pre-COVID numbers despite options returning as the country reopens. 

New research released Tuesday by the Australian National University (ANU) queried over 3k adult respondents in each of two surveys in May and November to determine their level of gambling activity during the pandemic. The figures were then compared to a similar survey conducted in April 2019. 

Last year’s survey found nearly 66% of respondents admitted gambling at some point in the previous 12 months, but May 2020 found this figure to have dipped to 53%, in part due to the closure of land-based gambling options in March. By November, this figure had inched back up to 58.7%, although that’s still significantly below the pre-pandemic norm. 

The April 2019 to May 2020 decline was fairly evenly split between genders but, while female gamblers showed a negligible rise in gambling activity between May and November 2020, male gambling was up 7.4 points, only about 3.3 points below where it started in April 2019.