Australian Government tightening the screws...

[Fedya Fussball]

Another article from The Sydney Morning Herald,
where the Federal Government wants more Control

Federal threat to override Net gaming

By MICHELLE GRATTAN and JOSEPH KERR - Sydney Morning Herald

The Federal Government yesterday threatened to override majority State and Territory opposition and impose a 12-month ban on new forms of interactive gambling, primarily the Internet.

NSW was the only State to fully support the Commonwealth's proposal for a moratorium at a ministerial meeting yesterday, while Western Australia offered qualified support.

All other States and Territories rejected the proposal, arguing vigorously that it was unworkable.

The strong Commonwealth line follows the Productivity Commission's report finding that there are more than 200,000 problem gamblers in Australia, and the Government's belief that there is widespread community support for a ban.

But any action would contrast dramatically with the Government's recent refusal to override the Northern Territory and West Australian mandatory sentencing laws, even though the Prime Minister said such laws were bad.

Government sources quickly said there was a difference. The Commonwealth had powers to make laws for the Internet, while to override WA mandatory sentencing it would have to use the external affairs power.

But their argument is undermined by the fact the Commonwealth has direct power to intervene in the Northern Territory.

Control of gambling comes under State governments' control but the Commonwealth can override the States using its constitutional power over postal, telegraphic, telephonic "and other like services", or its power to make laws for corporations.

The Minister for Communications, Senator Alston, and the Minister for Family and Community Services, Senator Newman, said the States "

seem more interested in preserving their own gambling revenues than in addressing their social responsibilities".

They said technologies such as the Internet, digital television and wireless telephony would enable a wide range of new gambling opportunities, many of them available in the home.

Senator Newman said the Federal Government was prepared to look at "any option the Commonwealth has that will enable a pause".

Asked why the Commonwealth was treating this issue differently from mandatory sentencing, Senator Newman said: "The people of Australia are very worried about problem gambling. We are very worried about the break-up in family life, in the opportunities, in the encouragement for domestic violence, for whole communities to be disadvantaged and deprived and in poverty as a result of gambling".

The Victorian Minister for Gaming, Mr Pandazopoulos, said the proposal was "archaic and unworkable". It was nonsense to suggest that Australia could be shielded from the Internet.

In a split among Labor States, the NSW Minister for Gaming and Racing, Mr Face, said his Government had been pushing the Commonwealth to control Internet gambling for two years.

But the Queensland Treasurer, Mr Hamill, condemned the Federal Government as "pig ignorant" when it came to the problems of Internet gambling.

He said the Federal Government failed to understand basic distinctions such as the difference between Internet gambling and interactive gambling, which included activities such as phone betting.

A spokesman for the ACT Treasurer, Mr Humphries, said moves to force the moratorium were "misguided and myopic".

The Treasurer of South Australia, Mr Lucas, said a ban ultimately was unworkable and could involve retrospective legislation and compensation for some existing licence holders.

[Fedya Fussball]

Another article from OZ about the recent debates about Internet gaming. As usual, we have the Moral right getting involved.

----------------------------------------

Howard blasts Qld Government over Internet gambling

from Australian Broadcasting Corp.

John Howard has taken a swipe at the Queensland Government for its involvement in an Internet gambling enterprise.





The Prime Minister has accused the states of being irresponsible for not agreeing to a one year moratorium on online gambling.


Only Western Australia and New South Wales supported the ban.



The Federal Government may now use its telecommunications powers to prevent Australians accessing gaming sites on the Internet.





Mr Howard says the community has sent a clear signal that there is already too much gambling available.





"The attitude of some of the states on this is hard to fathom, it is irresponsible, they are just interested in the revenue," he said.





"One of the states, Queensland, the government apparently has an interest in one of the operators who wants the Internet licence."





However the Queensland Government has rejected a claim from the PM that it is opposing a moratorium on Internet gaming because it has a financial interest.





"We are not in it for the dollar, what we are about are three principle objectives, prevention, harm minimisation and rehabilitation," Queensland Treasurer David Hamill said.





However Federal Communications Minister Richard Alston has also accused the Queensland Government of being obsessed with maximising revenue from gambling at the expense of its social impact.





Senator Alston says a 12-month moratorium would put a freeze on an explosion of Internet gambling.





"We are very disappointed that a number of the states, particularly Queensland seem to be much more obsessed with revenue maximisation than the social implications of gambling," he said.





"Once you start getting third generation mobile telephones and the Internet with broadband access, people with have a capacity to gamble 24-hours-a-day.





"It will be irresistibly attractive."




Support





Anti-gambling activists have thrown their support behind the Federal Government in its fight with the states and territories.





Baptist church minister Tim Costello agrees that the states are acting out of greed.





"For these greedy grasping states to actually maximise their own tax windfall from interactive gambling, rather than protect Australians, and to do it by saying with mealy-mouthed promises 'we're regulating to minimise harm', that's nonsense," he said.





"They are going to cause enormous harm. This is the behaviour of states that are addicted to gambling."





Reverend Costello says the Commonwealth should step in.





"The Federal Government now has an opportunity to match its commendable rhetoric, saying gambling is out of control, with real legislative muscle," he said.








No comparison





The Prime Minister says there is no comparison between the government's move to ban Internet gambling and its decision not to intervene on mandatory sentencing.





He says the issue is completely different from mandatory sentencing, because the federal government is not trying to intervene in an area of state control.





"This is not a question of us interfering in an area where the states have responsibility," he said.





"We have the legal authority to regulate communications, broadcasting, television, the Internet is part of it and it's not an override...it's an exercise of our powers."

[greg]

too bad most of the immoral left are also antigaming .

[Bob]

Fedya, are they talking about shutting down existing sites for a year or not allowing anything new for a year? I can't really tell from these articles. Would Darwin and Canbet and the others be closed?

[AussieVamp2]

would have to close the NSW TAB online betting too..... that would be interesting

plus Tattersalls

[Fred]

Oh save us from our wicked gambling ways Johnny Howard! Protect us from deciding how to live our lives. We yield control of our lives to you, for you know best.

Okay Fred, relax, it's just a bad dream.

AV2

What do you reckon the chances of this actually getting through are, ie no more Canbet, DAS, Megasports etc?

Maybe it's just a '60 Minutes' driven knee jerk?

What a hypocrite is NSW premier Bob Carr! -- presiding over 10% of the world's poker machines which are unbeatable but supporting a ban which might include sports betting which is beatable.

A clear distinction between sports betting and casinos/poker machines needs to be made.

I understand that the vast majority of problem gamblers in Australia are poker machine players not sports bettors.

[Fedya Fussball]

Bob:
Firstly, the Federal Government (Aust.) is at odds with the State Governments because they have jumped the gun and implemented a
plan of harnessing online gaming.

As Aussie Vamp has pointed out NSW Tab (Like US - OTB) has Online gaming as well and it is
a huge source of revenue of the State. And to
kill it would really cause a revolution in OZ
that would by not as controllable as having to bury one compulsive gambler.

Fred has also pointed out that the biggest problem for compulsice gamblers in OZ, and that includes New South Wales where Fred is from - and that is poker machine which are similiar to Las Vega$ style one-armed bandits.

The ladz Down Under are definitely following this one closely.

FF

[AussieVamp2]

yes, increases in problem gambling were caused by poker machines everywhere...

Cushy deals for casinos, notwithstanding, of course - these also being part of the problem, and being given deals/tax breaks, etc. etc.

i.e. people from Victoria where I live used to have to take an occasional trip to the NSW border to have a crack at them

Now a ten to 20 minute walk will get me to about 4 places with them.

I am all for getting rid of these, as they are not possible to beat, which a lot of problem gamblers don't understand, of course.

It has turned a lot of the pubs into 'swankier' venues, the revenue from these machines, to appeal to the female, etc.
Hasn't done good things for the live music industry, either.

Tim Costello is not your televangelist type of baptist, though, but a social activisit. One of the few leading religious figures that is not a bigoted f-wit.

You will get an interesting fight here - states are dependent on gambling money for revenue, so won't ban gambling unless they got money from a privatising conservative government who has cut their revenue base, so can't pay the states to do this.

The state governments who were in place and still there when the poker machine stuff started won't want people digging around too much, either.

The racing industry lobby and hence their ministers there won't like their revenue being cut, either, as gambling directly funds them. Sports betting is still pretty small.

The other question this would raise in a court you would expect is why are people allowed to use their mobile phone to bet? I can be waiting for a tram and call someone I have an internet account with to bet on someone - one is just as easy as the others - and far more people have phones than computers. Australia also has one of the highest mobile phone take up rates per capita, so most of us can do this if they want. Then people can bring up the whole online share gambling thing, too. The large banks are involved here.

The chances of getting rid of established operators? Pretty low, I would think. Limiting/reducing/disallowing new ones perhaps a bit more likely. Banning online casinos is probably a good idea. Online race or sports betting is a whole different story.

Tattersalls, who does lots of the evil poker machine stuff, has links to Canbet on their site, and offers lotteries etc. online I think, so they have lots of cash and pull, too.

Sounds like a big legal mess to me, if they are silly enough to try it.

[OZ]

Don't even worry about it,


First the pm called all the states together and asked for a ban on all NEW internet gambling sights for one year, so a committee could monitor the impact of internet gambling and see if there is a way to ban internet gambling.

The states said to the pm, go and get f-ucked

The two states that said it would ban new internet sights for one Year (NSW AND WA) have I believe already handed out all the internet licences it had planned for, so no great big sacrifice there

Maybe that is something we could ask boris about, because I think he said he had a involment with a WA bookmaker, maybe he would know wether or not it has a internet licences.

QLD ,TAS ,VIC all plan to give out internet licences, with Victoria big three Tattersall, Tabcorp, and kerry Packer Crown casino likely to get a licence.

What I believe will happen is the states will keep telling the pm to get f-ucked, at the same time fast tracking it's internet licence
And them agreeing on a one year ban on all new licences.

What won't happen is ban on Internet betting? Gambling is the states only major revenue outside of the federal government, so they won't give that up without a fight

If Kerry packer gets an Internet licence, THAT IT, IT’S HERE TO STAY, no matter what John Howard wants.

[AussieVamp2]

Last bit is a good point.

Kerry could say, Johnny, we'll make public all those casino documents before I took over the place - don't think he'd like that.

Did see a state bloke on SBS re-iterate the GGAGF, but politely.

Would Little Johnny do a goat on Channel 9 if KP told him to?

[Fedya Fussball]

OZ, AussieVamp2:

Brudders, I with you on this one all the way as
Mr. Howard and Federal Government should be tackling bigger issues in OZ like -

Marijuana Farms

Trying to control our northern shoreline from boatloads of illegals

& If that is too hard- How about having less salt in the River Murray.

And if too many orientals leave their kids in cars
with temperatures approaching 60C to play those damn pokie machines then they should act on that and wonder what I'm looking at in www.Kewl-odds.com.au!

I wish I was at Oakbank this weekend!!!

FF

[AussieVamp2]

government greenfarming?

sounds interesting

actually, taxes from those cigarettes should easily be able to pay for some ecological repair.........

[AussieVamp2]

Fedya 'Ours'

Did they relocate you from somewhere???

which hemisphere are you in currently Fred?

and Oz, what footy team do you like?

[Fedya Fussball]

AussieVamp:

G'day Mate... Hope you are enjoying your Easter/ANZAC Day break.

If you are horse punting man you would be in Heaven!!!

Currently I live in New Jersey and that is why I was able to get together with the Bettorsworld group in Atlantic City.

However, I'm a Croweater from OZ and I am
in touch with family back home regularly.
Carlton was my team, butt I was more interested in Dagball, when I was growing up.

Also Morphetteville....

Cheers,
FF

[Fedya Fussball]

Newest article from THE AGE on the same topic

Internet gaming ban push

By Jason Koutsoukis - The Age

The Federal Government will explore all practical means to ban Internet gambling in Australia, the chairwoman of the ministerial gambling council, Jocelyn Newman, said yesterday.

And the prospect of a 12-month moratorium on new Internet gaming licences became more certain after the Australian Democrats expressed support for the proposal.

But Senator Newman said the government supported a total ban on Internet gaming.

"We are very committed to seeing whether it is feasible and effective to introduce a ban ... that's what we want to do," Senator Newman said.

"What we are trying to say is, `you haven't seen anything yet'. With the coming of digital TV, we're going to be able to have effectively a poker machine or a casino in every home in Australia," she said.

"Now is the time - when there's very little of it in our country - for us to look at whether we really want it and whether we can really do something about it," she told Channel Seven.

After last week's first meeting of the ministerial gambling council of state and federal government gaming ministers, the Federal Government said it would use its constitutional power to stop state governments issuing new Internet gaming licences over the next 12 months.

The one-year moratorium proposal was opposed by all the states and territories except New South Wales and Western Australia. The moratorium was also opposed by the Federal Opposition.

The Democrats' gaming spokeswoman, Senator Natasha Stott Despoja, said her party would support the moratorium, but was opposed to the outright prohibition of Internet gaming.

"The Democrats believe prohibition won't work with the Internet, given the nature of the medium," Senator Stott Despoja told the Ten Network's Meet the Press.

"We support an interim moratorium, that is in relation to the granting of new licences for online gambling until such time as we have a national regulatory framework," she said. "But a framework that has to be worked out in conjunction and in cooperation with the states, not imposed on the states, as the government's suggesting."

Prominent anti-gambling campaigner, the Reverend Tim Costello, applauded the Federal Government for its courage in moving to impose the moratorium.

"For any party to actually stand up to these very powerful interests is going to be a courageous party," Mr Costello told Channel Nine's Sunday program.

"I hope the Democrats' moratorium gets through and I hope over 12 months we have a debate," he said.

"If we get the chance to have a debate, I know what Australians will say. They'll say gambling is out of control.

"When you ask most Australians do they want more access to gambling, they say `no'."

Butt, do they want less or none

Tattersalls has predicted that gambling losses will increase tenfold over the next 10 years, with losses rising from $11billion to $110 billion.

Last year's Productivity Commission report on Australia's gambling industries found that more than 80per cent of Australians gambled each year, wagering a total of $11billion annually.

Earlier this year a Senate committee report recommended a moratorium, while urging better ways to deal with the problem.

FF