In Australia, it was illegal to provide interactive gambling activities like online casinos to the Australian people as per the Interactive Gambling Act 2001. This Act made it illegal to provide a prohibited interactive gambling service, provide an unlicensed regulated interactive gambling service and provide an Australia-based interactive gambling service to players in designated countries.

iGaming in Australia might be a thing of the past after senators agreed to approve a bill seeking its nationwide ban. The senators went ahead and gave the bill a nod despite the various disapprovals and opposition emanating from a majority of the local players. The passing of the Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill 2016, in a nutshell, brings an end to online poker in Australia. The bill, which was proposed by Alan Tudge, the minister for Human Services in Australia is set to revise the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 (IGA). It was seen as the government’s action towards the recommendations that had been raised during a consultation review held in 2015 on the impact caused by illegal offshore betting.

Components of the Bill

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According to provisions in the new bill in Australia, all poker and online casino services will be completely banned in the nation when the bill takes effect in 30 days. There are already reports published in the local dailies indicating that the planned blocking of all unlicensed operators’ ISPs that were targeting Australian players will be put on hold. It is clear that they will not be effected in the foreseeable future. The new bill had been drafted with an aim of plugging the gaps that existed within the existing gaming laws.

Passing of the Bill

A number of events occurred before the bill was passed by the Australian Parliament’s upper house. It occurred one week after a senate committee on environment and communications references had called for public participation during the hearing on online poker. The committee had called upon the interested parties and online poker enthusiasts to offer their testimony regarding their calls to have these games excluded from the ban. The hearing was set up in order to get the opinion of all involved parties as well as poker players on whether the online poker game ought to be banned and if on the contrary, reasons against its banning.

Pro-Online Poker Advocates

Among the chief advocates for the exclusion of online poker from the ban was Senator David Leyonhjelm. Senator David is on record holding that online poker ought to be classified in a different manner from the casino games given that it is a game of skillfulness and hence should not be banned. In addition, the senator is on record for championing for the establishment of an online market that will be properly regulated and comprise of proper taxation and monitoring in place of allowing a complete blanket ban on all these services.

Effects of the New Bill’s Approval

Despite the fact that these pleas have been put forward, it seems they fell on deaf ears and the consequences of the bill have started to be felt in the industry. Already a number of operators have chosen to exit the market early in the wake of the passage of the bill. 888poker, PokerStars, Gaming Innovation group and 32red are among the online poker operators that have already exited from Australia’s market. They have closed down their operations in Australia and no longer accept players from the country. There are also indications that the remaining players will also exit.

From 1 January 2019, all online lottery betting in Australia will be forbidden. The government announced its formal approval to ban all sites accepting bets on the outcome of lottery draws and keno on a national level. Read on.

Australia’s Online Lotteries Ban

On Thursday, Australia’s parliament publicised its approval to ban online lotteries and lottery-styled games such as keno. The decision comes after the federal government was persuaded by newsagents, clubs and pubs to take action fearing that they might lose lottery ticket sales. The chief executive of the Australian Lottery and Newsagents Association, Adam Joy, was one of the main advocates calling for a ban. Joy said the move would offer protection to lottery customers in Australia.

“This will protect Australia from synthetic lotteries and will bring important new consumer protections by closing the loophole that lotto betting sites have been operating out of,” said Joy. “We now call on all synthetic lottery operators to do the right thing by Australians and cease offering these products immediately,” Joy added.

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The Minister for Australian Communications, Mitch Fifield, issued a statement following the parliament proceedings saying that the Australian government was committed to protecting businesses and customers. “This legislation will also protect more than 4000 small businesses including newsagents, pharmacies and community clubs and pubs across the country who operate long-standing, recreational betting services,” said Fifield.

Lottoland Keen to Stay: Online Lottery Betting Ban

Lottoland Australia, which is the main target for the ban said it was keen to remain active despite the government’s decision. Luke Brill, the company’s chief executive, said that the ruling: “does not mean the end of Lottoland Australia”. However, the online lottery site will be forced to stop offering its ‘synthetic lotteries’ service once the ban comes into effect.

Brill enthused that it wasn’t 2019 yet and that the company is “well-advanced” and will come up with other solutions with which to serve its Australian customers.

“As you would expect, Lottoland Australia is well-advanced in looking at other ways we can continue to deliver choice to the 700,000 Australians who have registered with us over the past two years,” Brill said.

“It is a great pity that the Senate did not give due consideration of the unintended consequences the new laws will have – not just on our customers, but on competition and innovation.

As we have said from the very beginning, the legislation is bad news for Australian newsagents, too, which will now be at the mercy of a huge, money-hungry monopoly in the form of Tatts Group, now owned by Tabcorp.

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But this decision does not mean the end of Lottoland Australia – far from it,” Brill added.

Stay tuned to Top Australian Casinos for more gambling news and updates!