Australian pokies manufacturing giant Aristocrat posted a 28.9 percent surge in player purchases for online activities in the six months to March as the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns meant people were forced to spend time at home.
The rise was seen across Arirstocrats online offerings, including its casino-type games, puzzles and role-playing programs. The spike in online use came as the pandemic hammered sales of physical gambling machines, squeezing gambling enterprises around the world
Aristocrat produced its first machine in 1953. Since then, the company has grown to become the largest gambling machine manufacturer in Australia, and the second-largest manufacturers of slot machines in the world, currently only behind International Game Technology
On the same day, the results were announced, Aristocrat Gaming and Wests Newcastle officially sent the proposal to the state’s gambling regulator for trialling cashless gaming machines in NSW.
Aristocrat will issue a 15¢ interim dividend after reporting a slight decline of 1 percent in revenue in its half-year results to $2.2 billion. No interim dividend was paid by the company last year.
Net profit after tax at the gaming business plummeted 73.5 percent to $346.5 million from $1.3 billion.
But on Aristocrat’s preferred measure, of normalised profit after tax and before amortisation of acquired intangibles (NPATA), earnings rose 11.8 per cent to $411.6 million.
Aristocrat stood down 1000 staff, cut 200 jobs and transformed another 200 full-time positions to part-time roles in a difficult year.
Sales of physical pokies machines fell 10 percent whilst profits in Australia and New Zealand increased 10 percent to $85.1 million.
