Online gambling in australia

[mistercao]

Hi !
(sorry for my poor english)

I'd just read this news (https://www.gpwa.org/article.asp?id=175647)
And i would like to know the list of illegal online casino in Australia and the legal way to promote gambling in Australia.

I'll go in Melbourne soon and in want to know if i can be an affiliate man, officialy in this place !

thanks.

[alexpratt]

There is two things here -

First - That article is all about an attempt by the governement out there to censor the internet from porn and online gambling sites - From what I have read it doesn't seem like its going to go throug

Second - The legal situation in Australia is very confusing - I am not 100% sure but I am pretty sure poker is illegal unless it is play money hence they are all .net - I think the same goes for casino.....and sports is wierd because you can't take bets from the state you are based in but I am not 100% sure on any of that - I will be in three weeks after CAP Down Under

By the way if you are in Oz at the end of November please come along to CAP Down Under it should be an amazing event xxxwww.capdownunder.com

[mistercao]

Unfortunaly, i will not be in Oz in the end of november, just december... snirf !


Thanks for your answer !
Then, i must not make official my gambling work.... in Oz.

If someone know where we can find some law write about this.. ?

Thanks again Alexpratt

[Stephen F]

Australia was probably the first country to make online gambling illegal - in all forms. However, there are exceptions for licensed sports books, and the implementation of the law is a little haphazard. You really need legal advice to understand where you stand, however, I can say that there are numerous affiliates in Australia.

Stephen

[Renee]

I'm no lawyer, so I can't say this is 100% correct with 100% certainty, but I have read the act regarding online gaming in Australia, and as I understood it, it is not illegal to make a bet in Australia, however it is illegal to take a bet from an Australian.

Regarding the legalities of an Aussie affiliate, I'm not sure, however as CommissionAccount said, there are quite a few affiliates based in Australia.

[Stephen F]

Correct, the act refers to Operators only, and not the Players.

Stephen

[CashRake: Damon]

What a dumb law...

From an operator's point of view, a site based in Australia is not allowed to take bets from Australian residents. The government has been of the opinion that online gambling is bad for society and has decided to hand out substantial fines to sites which do so. It has to be one of the most hypocritical laws out there, considering how strong the horse racing and casino industries are down here and that virtually every pub has poker machines. So instead of regulating online gambling and giving players safe playing options in their own country players are taking their money (and the government's potential taxes) to other countries. Stupid is a mild word...

[Mike Keenan]

I spent months following and reading through all the legislation in the Interactive gaming act. And what is banned is anything deemed interactive gaming, which is basically anything that is a game of chance, lotteries, poker, slots etc. There are exemptions for horse racing, greyhounds, trotting, sports betting and government approved internal lotteries. Basically it is illegal for an Australian based citizen or company to advertise an interactive gaming website, product etc, however it is not illegal for an Australian to access an interactive gaming service online etc. And another however, it is illegal for an interactive gaming service to accept an Australian citizen as a client. (And there is more can's and cannots, but I will be here for days).

In recent events here, the government is also trying to implement a mandatory content filter, which is implemented at an isp level and is non removable. Ideas thrown around at the moment are that one of the filters priorities will target online gaming. This whole content filter scheme has hit a raw nerve here in regards to censorship issues, so the chances are that it may not happen.

The racing industry in NSW has also implemented the race fields legislation, which basically places a copyright on the name of a horse race and the name of any horse taking part in it. So if you are a bookmaker for example and want to take bets on that states racing, you have to pay a 1.5% fee, not on profit, but on entire turnover. This has really set a fire across the entire betting industry and there is court action aplenty. The other states in Australia seem to be saying that they will go down the same road and I assume they will await to see what happens in the courts etc in regards to this.

Racing in NSW as a result though, has over the past months gone downhill and things don't look good at the moment at all. The whole idea from a spectator point of view, is that it was plain silly to have implemented this in the first place. Even my website used to cover NSW racing with free tips and news, giving them worldwide publicity, but now as a result I have completely removed everything in regards to NSW racing because of this copyright law. And from a principle standpoint I am not going to advertise there racing product for free and then as a result have to pay them a copyright fee in return, it should be the other way around. And a lot of other webmasters here have followed this trend, to the point that you don't even know there is any racing actually on in NSW most days.

Sportsbetting seems to be the only actual form of gambling here that is growing (and there are copyright issues here as well, again its too much to go into) and with so many other forms of gaming available, horseracing may well become an event of the past. I live right next door to a racecourse and I have not even been there for about 10 years and not a lot of others have either. The racing game here is a power game, and the working man who used to go racing and pump-in all of the money, just got sick of it. I run a racing website and was even an apprentice jockey at one point, horseracing was my life, but I am more interested in sports these days and racing is just one of those non-events.

Which all goes to show that you can have too much of a good thing with gambling in any form. We basically have the ability here to access freely, 7 day a week, 24 hour a day gambling and everyone just got really bored with the whole lot of it.

[CashRake: Damon]

Very good post, Mike. I think you said it all in your last sentence. Gambling sites can be accessed 24/7 regardless of where they're based, which takes the government out of it. Unless they start blocking sites at the ISP level, they can't prevent people from gambling online. Even then the industry would find a way around it I'm sure. It's a political and power issues here. The casino and horse racing industries are very strong and gambling sites would cut into their profits. I can't really see things changing.