Do You Want to Know About Gambling Policy and Regulation in Australia?
Australian Internet users are often unsure about the legality of online gambling, with the regularly asked question; is online gambling legal in Australia in 2018?
It’s a complex question with a complex list of answers, but to give the most imperative answer, it happens to be presently illegal for online casinos to present Australian residents services to place real money bets in online casinos, online poker and bingo to place rooms.
Australian betting culture and rules
Gambling is a common pastime that is deeply rooted in Australian culture. Indeed, Australians have the highest gaming participation rate in the world.
Whether it’s leaving a few coins in a poker pub, placing an annual bet on the Melbourne Cup, or betting regularly on your favorite table game in a real casino, real money gambling is part of Australian culture.
Rapid advances in technology have led to Australian online casino websites expanding and virtual gambling becoming more popular as more users turn to mobile, online, and tablet betting substitutes.
Most of the Australian gambling laws use to work for protecting trouble gamblers and make sure accountable betting observes, even though it is controversial that such laws are hypocritical and inconsistent with other gambling policy and regulation in Australia.
Current government gambling regulation act in Australia surrounding online casino focus on how Australian gambling operators do business and what services they can and cannot offer, as opposed to what individuals are allowed to do with their own money.
Such rules have a minimal impact on individual recreational players and instead focus on preventing local and overseas online casino operators from offering interactive gaming services to Australian residents.
The Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill 2016
The Australian government initiated the Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill 2016 on November month, also recognized as the IGA Amendment Bill, to the House of Representatives in response to the 2015 Review in Illegal Offshore Wagering.
It suggests many of the changes discussed in the review of the Interactive Gambling Act 2001, namely closing the loopholes in the original IGA that allowed offshore online casinos to serve Australians.
The IGA Amendment Act came into full effect in September 2017, which means that offshore online poker and offshore online casino sites have gambling license in Australia can accept or serve Australian players no longer, or that they risk high fines and fines.
The technical aspect is that there is nothing in the IGA Amendment Act that proposes a penalty for Australian residents who continue to play in online casinos.
While most major casino brands have withdrawn from the Australian market, there are still some reputable offshore operators who have chosen to continue serving Australian players and the risk is with them.
Offshore workers who use to offer online gambling services to Australians risk high fines, but there does not appear to be any legal risk to the players.
