SlotGambling in Papua New Guinea is culturally significant but relatively modern and contested. Locally invented and adapted card games spread widely from around the 1950s and became woven into everyday life, alongside informal ‘lucky’ numbers games. Formal gambling arrived later: slot machines (‘pokies’) were legalised under the Gaming Machine Act 1993, which also created the National Gaming Control Board (NGCB). Attitudes are genuinely mixed, ranging from gambling as ordinary sociality to real concern about money-centred play and problem gambling.
A short history
Academic research describes a striking shift: from the near-absence of gambling in the 1930s to something close to a national pastime by the 1970s, around the time of independence from Australia. Card gambling in particular took off in the Highlands from about the 1950s, spread by returning labour migrants, with new game variants invented and adapted continuously — often within living memory of the players themselves.
Formal, state-sanctioned gambling came much later. The Gaming Machine Act 1993 legalised slot machines and, in the same period, brought PNG’s dedicated gambling authority — the National Gaming Control Board — into being. (Sources give the NGCB’s founding as the early-to-mid 1990s.) Following Australian usage, slot machines became known locally as pokies.
Popular games and bets
| Type | Examples | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Card games | Locally invented and adapted variants | Informal, widespread, part of everyday sociality |
| Numbers games | Informal ‘lucky’ numbers play | Popular but often informal/unregulated |
| Gaming machines | Pokies | Legal in licensed clubs and hotels |
| Bookmakers | Horse-race and sports betting | Licensed retail operators |
| Lotteries | NGCB-licensed products | Regulated |
Attitudes and social concerns
Attitudes to gambling in PNG are genuinely mixed. In much of the anthropological literature, card gambling is described as embedded in everyday money-sharing and sociality — a way money circulates rather than a purely private pursuit. At the same time, money-centred play can be criticised locally, and problem gambling is a recognised social concern. Gambling in PNG is best understood as culturally significant but contested, rather than uniformly embraced or condemned.
Where the record is thin
Papua New Guinea publishes relatively little detailed, up-to-date public data on gambling participation, and much of what is known about everyday gambling comes from academic ethnography rather than official statistics. Where this article stays general, that is deliberate: it reflects the limits of the published record rather than firm figures.
You must be of legal age to gamble. Gambling can be addictive — please play responsibly, set limits, and seek help if it stops being fun.