Government rejects idea of Aussie liberalization

[The Buzz]

An Australian two-year Productivity Commission study found gambling addicts lost at least $4.7 billion a year. This is mostly from poker machines, the study says.

How does this affect online gambling? Well the study also recommended that online gambling be liberalized in the country. The government rejected that idea.

From the Herald Sun:

The inquiry recommended a liberalisation of online gambling, which the Government rejected.

It said it would look at ways to block Australian users from gambling on overseas sites.

[Miss B]

What ideas did the Australian Government propose to lessen the problem?

[davenewgates]

@Miss B: As stated, it is to block Australian users from gambling on overseas sites.

In my opinion, if every online casinos will implement a strict policy on responsible gambling, like for example, setting a deposit limit for a day, detecting very big losses on every account and others, I don't think that the said amount of loss will happen in these websites. Also, I haven't heard of any news about a very big loss in online casinos (kindly provide me if there is any). And though the study figures a very big amount of money, I don't find anything stating that it is from online poker machines, or if majority of the amount is from online gambling.

[Renee]

Just as a side note, in Oz, "poker machines" cover everything that is played on a slot type machine.. we call slots "poker machines" or "pokies" even though they are generally not "poker" machines.

Cheers