Some concerning news from Down Under: The Australian Senate has passed the Gambling Amendment Bill which essentially bans all online casino activities in the country, and goes into effect this September. There has been an ongoing debate concerning the status of online poker and casino players for quite some time and just when it seemed like there was a lifeline for the Australian industry, this bill was introduced as a means of protecting the most vulnerable players.
The same bill was already passed by Australia’s House of Representatives earlier this year. It all started in November 2016, when Alan Tudge, Australia’s Minister of Human Services, proposed an act that would outlaw even the offshore online gambling sites. The bill came to rise after numerous shouts from its proponents claiming that gambling addiction in the country has started to take its toll. It will still be legal to play on offshore gambling sites, but operators are no longer permitted to offer their online poker services and could face enormous fines if they continue to do so – even up to $5 million in fees for each day service continues.
As early as January of this year, major online poker operators, like PokerStars and 888Poker have either announced they will leave the market or have already left it – the latter were the first to cease online poker activities and more operators will surely follow suit.
During his speech at the beginning of this year, Mitch Fifield, Federal Communications Minister, commented that “overseas operators have been freely offering their services to Australians” due to the “ambiguous law” that allows no licensed operators in Australia. “Whilst I appreciate that this is not welcomed by those individuals who have been using these services, it is a fact that online poker has always been a prohibited service under the act. It is not something that this bill is enacting. Whether online poker should be legal in Australia or not is a separate debate.” he added, commenting on the current law.
There were opposing views, arguing for the fact that poker is not so much a luck-related type of gambling as much as it mostly relies on skills and, hence, poses no threat to players. It looks like online poker is on its way out down under. What are your thoughts on this? Let us know in the comments below.
Source:
"Poker, online casinos officially banned in Australia“, Jones Lars, worldcasinodirectory.com, August 09, 2017.