What usually was considered to be though, now got tougher, mate! Australian gamblers never had an easy task in finding a good reliable online casino that provides them peace of mind when gambling online. Unfortunately, new gambling legislation are going to make this even tougher and we are going to tell you why and all that you need to know before picking up your best Australian online casino.
Well, if you did not hear yet, the Australian government is going to amend the Interactive Gambling Act of 2001 (IGA) of which will totally destroy any loop holes currently present in the ACT, thus making it tougher to gamble if you are living in Australia.
The IGA previously enforced that it was illegal for Australian online casinos to offer real-money online games to the citizens of Australia. It also banned advertising of online interactive games to the Australians.
However, offshore companies had no restrictions to offer their services in Australia thus making it possible to Aussie players to wager online at various operators.
As previously sad, the Act itself did not considered the operation of casinos online as illegal but casinos within the Australian borders where restricted to provide interactive gambling services to Australian citizens of which carried a penalty of $220,000 (max) per day for individual gambling operation or a hefty $1.1 million per day for the company offering such service.
To name a few of the online games and services that where effected by the IGA are:
- Roulette
- Blackjack
- Baccarat
- Craps
- Online Slots
- Keno
- Video Poker
- Poker
- Sports betting
With this new bill, which was filed on the 10th of November, will make gambling in Australia quite hard for Australian residents living within the Australian borders.
In simple words the bill will basically target online casino operators who take bets from Aussie players but do not have a local Australian online casino licence. All of them will be considered to have broken the law and will be prosecuted. Individuals would be fined up to $1.35 million each day, while the companies will be fined $6.75 million! quite a big fine huh?!
According to the Australian government, the new legislation is meant to give a much needed revamp to the gambling market and to eventually safe guard vulnerable Aussie players from gambling black markets and money sucking casino operators.
However, not everything is lost, because if the bill is converted in to law and comes into force, offshore casino operators will have to adhere themselves to the new IGA and eventually apply to hold an Australian online casino licence. By doing such a thing, the casino operator will be 100% legal to offer his online gambling services to Australian players.
As quoted from the bill:
"Some 35 offshore gambling sites are providing online wagering services to Australian residents, however, many of these are providing other services that are prohibited under the IGA, e.g. casino style games and in-play betting on sporting events. It is assumed that a small number of reputable online gambling operators (five to ten operators) will alter their services and apply for a licence in the years following the introduction of this proposed measure. Based on current licensing processes in Australia and other assumptions around compliance costs, it was accepted that the regulatory impact to gambling operators would be $58,400 annually."
We just hope that good sense will prevail and the authorities would leave our beloved Aussie players the possibility to gamble online responsibly.
