The truth about casinos being legal in Australia
How online casinos started
The internet has brought plenty of innovations, developments, and advancements which have also been experienced in the world of online casino gaming. It has affected how businesses are performed and how services are delivered. From online casinos, you will still get the same entertainment you received from brick-and-mortar casinos and more. You get more games, bonuses and interactions with people from all over the globe. Currently, there are live dealer games dealt with by real human dealers. This is one kind of gaming that gives you an experience close to what we are used to getting in brick & mortar casinos.
This has brought more and more online casinos into the virtual world. In turn, it attracted more and more online punters. Australia has not been left out. We have seen more and more online casinos getting into the Australian market.
Even though online casinos are easy to access now, this has come with its fair share of evils, one of them being addiction. There are instances where you find underage gambling is practiced through fake documents like IDs and passports. Some governments have banned online gambling before they can come up with structures that will curb some of these problems.
One of these regions is Australia, where online casinos face harsh regulations. They have a lucrative experience in the market. There are hurdles they are facing that are proving hard to beat.
Online Casinos History in Australia
Gambling in Australia has seen great growth. Online gambling has proven to be a great pastime for many Australians. Australia was ranked as one of the countries with the highest number of gamblers across the globe. Almost 80% of the adults were involved in gambling.
With the introduction of online casinos towards the end of the ’90s, more and more people became part of the frenzy. Australia has been one of the most vibrant online gaming industries; this has also seen more and more people get into mobile gaming. It is estimated that more than 50% of gambling activities are done through mobile devices.
The government in Australia has realized that the people involved in problem gambling are becoming more and more. This has prompted them to introduce measures that will regulate this.
The Interactive Gambling Act (IGA)
The interactive gambling act was one of the policies used to handle problem gambling. It is referred to as the IGA. The first time this bill was tabled in the Australian Parliament was in 2001. It was later passed into law in mid-2001, and this set the ground for stricter regulations on gambling and primarily on online betting.
The bill was focused on taming the fast-growing online casino industry in Australia. The bill termed it illegal to offer real money interactive online betting services to residents. This bill also prohibited gambling providers from advertising their gaming and betting services in Australia.
With such a law, it is clear that it was not legal to play online gambling or bet in Australia. But this left a gap that was taken advantage of by offshore gambling entities. This is because the laws in the IGA made it impossible for providers to get licensed to operate in Australia. This continued for a while to a time when this law was amended.
2016 Bill Amendment
The amendment was introduced to parliament by MP Alan Tudge in 2016. In his proposal, he suggested having stricter laws that clarified the government’s stand on offshore companies that were still operational in Australia. Most MPs did not support this bill since it focused on regulating the online gambling industry and not the land-based casinos, which were still growing and doing better in the market. Even with this friction, the bill was still passed in February 2017 and was labelled as the IGA Amendment Bill 2016.
The new amendment made it clear that it was illegal to conduct any form of real-money interactive gaming in Australia. The bill defined ‘regulated interactive gambling services’ and ‘prohibited interactive gambling services.’ These are the definitions used as the primary basis of online betting regulation in Australia. In this new bill, it was made clear that any form of online gambling was illegal, and by extension, this included online bingo, in-play betting, and live lotteries. The bill further stated that it was illegal to advertise such activities.
More to this, any Australian-based companies are prohibited from offering interactive online gaming services to games in designated countries. A country can request to be considered a designated country if it has a legal structure that also prohibits online gambling. Australia has the mandate to report any offshore company to its home country government when found to be breaking any of these laws.
As per this Interactive Gambling Act Bill of 2016, it is now illegal for offshore companies to offer interactive online betting and gaming services to Australian residents.
Is poker also prohibited?
Poker was also covered in the amendment bill of 2016. Before the bill was passed, there was the argument that poker is a game of skill and not luck, as with other online casino games. They said that with poker, you could only win with good skills and strategy.
The Australian parliament did not hear any of this, and as per their definitions, poker falls under the prohibited interactive gambling services. This means that you will also not find online poker gaming in Australia. You will find one or two sites that will still go past these barriers.
One of the problems of playing on these sites is that they are offering their services illegally, and this can land the provider into problems. This being the case, your activities are risky, and you might lose your deposits or winnings without any possibility of successfully following up on the matter.
Recently there have been MPs who are still trying to push for the reclassification of poker. They might shortly see a re-introduction of online poker rooms. In the proposal, the idea is to have sites offering online poker services exclusively and no other online casino or betting services.
What of Sports Betting?
Sports betting still has a vibrant market. There are a host of online betting platforms that are registered and licensed in Australia. Moreover, a good number of offshore companies, including leading brands, also have a huge presence in the market. Several in-store retail betting outlets are also being set up around the country.
One thing that would be great for us to note is that the sports betting market in Australia is different from related jurisdictions. Interactive sports betting, like in-play sports betting, is banned in Australia. Before the IGA Amendment was passed, some bookies offered in-play betting, which is not allowed anymore.
In the past, they used the ‘Click to Call’ function, a technology that allowed them to offer in-play betting simulated through calls. During the passing of the Bill, the legislators made it clear that even this was illegal.
The bookies serving the Australian market will give you a host of betting markets, sports, and bonuses to make your journey worthwhile.
Implications on the Online Gaming Market
The regulations passed with regard to the Australian market were meant for the good of the masses, but this ended up being not so for the online gambling and betting industry. These guys experienced a huge blow and hurt their businesses in a great way. This prompted the providers to pull out of the Australian market even before the bill was passed because they sensed the hostility to be experienced.
This made many brands leave the market, and one would say that their plan might have worked out. But as per Senator Leyonhjelm’s argument, during the debate on passing the amendments, the law was not going to improve the gambling addiction issues.
Having denied gamers access to online betting services was to drive them back to land-based casinos. Poker has a huge following, and it keeps growing by the day. Brick-and-mortar casinos were happy about these regulations since they protected their businesses from the direct threat of online markets. This is seeing more and more land-based operators expand their businesses.
For those who love playing online, they will still do so but illegally, and this is through the use of Virtual Private Networks. All you need is an already existing account with an offshore site and a reliable VPN connection. This is a risky move for the Australian punters are they are exposing themselves to rogue operators.
This move of banning online casinos only serves to broaden the black market where illegal operators thrive. From surveys, it is believed that one of the push factors making Australians move to offshore sites was the access to in-play betting.
Payment Options for Australian Gamers
As a way of making their regulations successful, the Australian Government brought on board banks and financial providers. They were to come up with ways to bar payments that would be made to online offshore gambling companies. This means that if you succeeded at getting into an offshore gambling platform, it would not be possible for you to make any deposits at online casinos like Fair Go Casino.
If you are playing a legal platform that has been legally registered, then you should not worry about the regulation on payment options. Any deposits to online betting sites in Australia will be made without trouble. One great thing with the regulations is that the Australian government will not charge any taxes on winnings that you make since they do not consider gambling as an occupation but it is merely a pastime hobby. Any winnings that you make are considered to be from luck and not labour.
What does the future hold for online gambling in Australia?
From how things are, the government does not show any signs of backing down on its regulations. This means that any online gambling operator planning to get into the Australian market needs to have their business restructured to meet the regulations set by the Australian Government.
There are still debates going on with regard to credit betting. This has been presented to parliament after the passage of the 2016 amendments was a proposal to regulate the extent of credit betting. The idea here was to ban credit betting. The only exemption to be considered is if the gambling service provider offering credit betting has a turnover of more than AUD 30 million. When you look at most companies, this is a low ceiling that most companies will be able to meet.
Conclusion
There is hope in the Australian market, and this is if the parliament can reclassify online poker as a regulated online gambling activity and not have it as a prohibited exercise. There was a study that was to be done on the perception Australians have towards poker gambling and also weigh the social and economic impacts of having online poker readily available. If the reports favour the reclassification, then the motion will, without doubt, pass.
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