Lottoland considers High Court challenge

The company could challenge the Australian Court if the legislation to ban betting on overseas lotteries passes the federal parliament.

Australia.- Lottoland Chief Executive Luke Brill has told the press that the company is ready to fight the ban on betting on overseas lotteries if it passes federal parliament. The Gibraltar-based company would consider a High Court challenge.

“With 700,000 customers in Australia, we’re going to continue to fight this,” said Brill on Monday. The legislation to ban Lottoland’s business model, known as synthetic lotteries, is expected to be discussed in the House of Representatives on Wednesday.

While the government said that it has acted in response to community concern, Brill believes that the ban is motivated by a US$5 million “smear” campaign launched by Tabcorp in order to sink his company. “What you’re seeing from Tatts and Tabcorp at the moment is them acting like a monopoly,” he said.

Lottoland is currently supported by Victorian Association for Newsagents general manager Chris Samartzis and Newsagents Association of NSW and ACT chief Ian Booth, who said that the legislation before parliament will stop increased competition in lotteries, ultimately hurting small businesses. “It will create a monolithic monopoly in Australia, which is not in the interest of small business,” said Booth.