Not a very happy start for the new year for the Australian casino market as one of the big names in online casino service providers shut it's doors and turned its back on Australian market industry and to be honest, they are not to be blamed!
Late last year the minister for Human Services Alan Tudge introduced a new bill, the Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill 2016, to amend the Interactive Gambling Act of 2001 (IGA).
A Maltese based online casino brand, Vera&John, has decided to shut it's operations within the Australian market as the same market regulation is getting shadier then ever before and one would guess that Vera&John are not up to the risks.
Quite frankly I think that they will not be the last of its kind to take similar actions in the coming months, unless the regulation is made clear to everyone.
However, there might still be a long way to go to actually properly regulate the market as the bill still needs to turn into law but not before its reviewed, discussed and probably emended again. This can get better or it can even get worse, as the discussions and reviews can alleviate some strict conditions in the new bill and make it more off shore casino friendly or else it could tighten up more and totally destroy the international involvement within the Australian gambling market.
Vera&John informed its customers about this decision via an announcement which stated the the decision was purely a business decision. However, its quite clear that the decision was taken in the view of this Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill 2016 together with all the complications and obscurity that this situation is implying in the Australian gambling market.
At this stage one would simply hope that this is not the start of a total exodus of online casinos from such an important gambling market.
