Online Gambling In Australia

By Author: Kellen Sears
Total Articles: 381
Comment this article

Australia has historically been a friendly country for gamblers. When it was colonized, the people brought with them a widespread social acceptance of gambling and an expectation for legalized gambling. One estimate puts the total percentage of Australians who partake in some form of gambling at 80 percent. The Australians aren't quite as relaxed about online gambling, however, having passed pieces of legislation such as the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 that put some regulations on online gambling.

The problem Australia faced with respect to the online gambling industry was that the Internet is very difficult to regulate. Many of the top online casino companies operated from outside of Australia, so they could not extract taxes from them and they kept prospective customers from visiting Australian casinos.

Since the advent of online gambling, the Australians have been looking for ways to police the Internet. They made a big step in 2001 when the Interactive Gambling Act (IGA) was put in place.

The legislation takes a unique approach. It does not criminalize the actual playing of online casino games ...
... or poker rooms. No ordinary Australian can be prosecuted under it. Instead, it goes after the online casinos trying to get the business of people living in Australia.

One exception to the IGA is sports gambling online. In contrast to the United States, wagering on sports online is completely legal in Australia. There are many state government licensed sports books in operation, such as Centrebet, Sportingbet, and Betfair.

Furthermore, the IGA prohibits the opening of new Australian online casinos but does not order online casinos already in existence prior to the 2001 Act to be shut down. As a result, Lasseters Online became only legitimate online casino in Australia. However, changes in American legislation resulted in Lasseters Online having to bar US players. Recently, Lasseters announced they were ending operations, citing the loss of American customers as a major contributing factor.
The legislation related to online gambling puts Australian gamblers in an interesting situation. On one hand, it is perfectly legal for an Australian to gamble online. On the other hand, no online casino can legally offer gambling services to Australians provided they intend to go by Australian law.

The reality of the situation is that online gambling is very much alive in Australia, as online casinos and poker rooms are unconcerned with the threat of prosecution from Australian authorities. The ease of online gambling has combined with Australians' love of gambling to result in a thriving industry.

Gambling online presents the very serious problem of fraud. As a result, Australian gamblers are advised of the importance of verifying the credibility of online casinos. There are black lists that separate the legitimate companies from the fraudulent and gamblers must check them before submitting important personal information to websites.

Over time, the growing number of people gambling exclusively online will lead to stricter regulations. More people gambling online means less people gambling in the casinos, where the government has historically earned a lot of tax revenue.

AUTHOR:-
Kellen Sears writes reviews on various sporting events including the online gambling websites. In this piece of write up, the author highlights on various betting odds i.e. online casino, online gambling etc.