Australia bans online poker and sports betting
The federal parliament of Australia passed today a law that bans online poker and in-play sports betting.
Australia.- Australia’s federal parliament confirmed today the decision made by the Senate when it passed a law to ban online poker and live sports betting in the country. The Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill 2016 was introduced back in November by the Minister for Human Services Alan Tudge.
The bill that prohibits Australians from playing online poker faced some changes in February after Senator David Leyonhjelm of the Liberal Democratic Party introduced an amendment called Sheet 8054, which aimed to modify the proposal and insert casino-style poker or blackjack gambling services in different stances of the bill to make it possible for online poker players to keep gambling in the country. Despite his attempt, the amendment wanted to close loopholes that allowed online gambling to continue operating. “”It’s stupid. If you want to play poker, there are lots of opportunities in Australia, at casinos and tournaments. It’s not as if there isn’t a great deal of poker playing already, but they’re just stopping it online. The whole world is online now,” he said to The Huffington Post Australia.
According to the Senator, the changes are unnecessary and not effective. “The original 2001 law was meant to stop online gambling of many kinds, but it didn’t, there was a loophole.” He told the news outlet that there is an active online poker community in Australia and that he doesn’t think that it would succeed for those who are really determined. “If you have a virtual private network or offshore account, you will still play. It’s a stupid situation to be in.”
The measure also bans live sports betting: a modality that let gamblers place in-play bets over the phone once the game had begun.According to the measure, the ban helps reducing match-fixing, but Leyonhjelm believes that it actually helps it develop: “In the UK, there are licensed providers of in-play betting and the government taxes them. They raised hundreds of millions in revenue last year. They are also able to audit the betting, to link sports events being rigged and correlate that back to activity, to follow the money trail.”
Furthermore, the official claimed that the ban would push gamblers to untrustworthy overseas agencies. The illegal market would also grow and the fate of the people who decide to gamble in a foreign server would be totally unprotected. “They will be in the hands of sometimes shady providers, and if they get ripped off, they will have no recourse,” he concluded. Australia is currently the biggest gambling nation, Global Betting and Gaming Consultants affirmed that the society per capita spends approximately US$866 per year.
