Gambling and welfare issues dog greyhound racing boons
An independent analysis has found that the harm and animal welfare issues of gambling far outweigh the economic benefits of greyhound racing.
As the Western Australian government weighs the future of greyhound racing, former Business Council of Australia economist Stephen Walters found the sport is costing the state more than it brings in.
The state government will spend $108.3 million in taxpayer funds over the next three years on greyhound racing prize money, payments to dog breeders and other industry-related costs, according to the report compiled for welfare group Animals Australia.
But the cost-benefit analysis found that for every dollar spent, 21 cents of economic value was lost due to gambling harms, poor animal welfare, inefficient use of land at training facilities and racetracks, and the diversion of taxpayer funds to sports rather than places like schools and hospitals.
“Greyhound racing is destroying economic value in Western Australia,” Mr Walters said.
A parliamentary inquiry into WA’s greyhound racing industry, which begins on Monday, will examine transparency and animal welfare concerns as the government faces pressure to ban the sport.
The Tasmanian parliament voted in August to phase out greyhound racing by 2029, while New Zealand, Wales and Scotland also plan to ban the practice in the coming years.
Mr Walters acknowledged the industry helped generate income and employed people at racetracks and in ancillary jobs such as transport and veterinary services, but argued those benefits were “buried” by costs in Western Australia.
The report found betting is the single biggest cost in WA’s greyhound racing industry due to the long-term cost of family breakdown, mental ill-health, loss of income and government funding required to mitigate the effects of gambling.
It cost the state $110.5 million in 2026.
But if WA follows Tasmania’s lead and closes the industry by 2029, the social costs of gambling will be reduced by only five per cent as 95 per cent of bets undertaken on greyhound racing will be diverted to other gambling activities rather than non-betting purposes.
Mr Walters acknowledged that the costs of poor welfare consequences for dogs, such as death and overbreeding, were relatively small and that it was difficult to measure them precisely, while the more general social costs of the problem were believed to be significantly higher.
The greyhound industry is already facing declining participation as the 2025 DemosAU survey shows the majority of WA participants do not support the sport.
“It is not clear that greyhound racing legislation can survive independently without significant funding from taxpayers,” Mr Walters’ report said.
WA’s Labor government is launching a review of the state’s racing industry to provide a framework for long-term fiscal stability, saying it employs thousands of workers and contributes $1.3 billion to the WA economy each year.
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