Australia bans internet gambling????!!!!

[Jeff]

From AAP
27mar01

17:00 (AEDT) THE federal government today announced it will ban Internet gambling in Australia.

Communications Minister Richard Alston said the government would move shortly to introduce a bill to ban Australian gambling providers from providing online and interactive gambling and wagering services to people in Australia.

"The prohibition will apply to all gaming and wagering services, including poker machines, casino games, sports betting and lotteries, that are offered on a commercial basis over the Internet or through online delivery systems such as interactive television and advanced mobile phone technologies," Senator Alston said in a statement.

"However, it will not apply to Australian gambling service providers offering such new interactive services to people who are physically located overseas."

Senator Alston said the regime would not place any obligation on Internet Service Providers to filter or to block banned gambling sites.

"Instead the legislation will place the onus on gambling service providers to determine whether users are physically located in Australia and, if they are, to prevent them from accessing the gambling site," he said.

[Underdog7]

Does that mean goodbye to Canbet?

[Fred]

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[This message has been edited by Fred (edited 03-27-2001).]

[Fred]

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[This message has been edited by Fred (edited 03-27-2001).]

[Dragon]

I hope this doesn't hurt Canbet or Darwin. Maybe they will have to move to Costa Rica now?

[Hartley]

The way I interpret it, Canbet is safe because its market isn't Australians.

Having said that, read Oz's comments in the Bookie's Hell section. In his opinion it's a last ditch attempt to save itself by a government that is going under. The hope is that in some vane way this tactic will difuse media attention from the issues in Australia that the people really care about and it will give them something to campaign on and hopefully salvage the government.

Sound familiar?

It really is a global world isn't it?

[boris]

(I posted this in the other forum also)

'shortly introduce' in politician speak means 3 months minimum.

The bill, according to a trusted colleague who has read the draft version, is full of flaws, and if it is to be passed, then will have to undergo a lot of changes to get the number of votes required to pass it.

The current Aus govt (Liberal) is on the way out. One of Australia's bigger punters asked for one million dollars (US$500k) on the opposition (ALP) at 2/5 on the weekend with one of Australia's bigger firms. The Libs brought in the GST (VAT) for the first time, have broken squillions of promises etc... they are very unpopular.

I wrote to the minister responsible for putting up this stupid piece of legislation......

Dear Senator Alston,
Your internet gambling legislation makes no sense at all. If your experts bother to dissect the figures about problem gambling, they will find that casinos and poker machines make up about 97% of all problem gamblers. The percentage of sports betting and race betting problem gamblers is so miniscule it is ridiculous.

There is no proposed ban on traditional lotteries, yet they return only 55-70% of the hold to those that invest. There is no proposed ban on traditional poker machines, yet they return 80-85% of their takings to punters. There is no proposal to ban horse racing betting, yet the return for punters there is usually about 82-84%. Sports betting is apparently the evil one because it gives the punter a good deal, traditional match betting returns an average of 92-94% to the punter.

Regulation can work, prohibition inevitably fails. Where do all the 'fixed' matches take place? Asia for soccer, India/Pakistan for cricket, USA for college basketball. Is it a coincidence that sports betting is banned in all of those jurisdictions?

Australia is close to the leading jurisdiction in the world for sports betting. No internet sports bookmaker in Australia has gone bankrupt. Some have sold their businesses, or chosen not to renew their licences, but none have gone the way of many in the Caribbean and even one of the new, internet-only bookmakers in the United Kingdom, once thought of as the bastion of safe sports gambling.

By banning internet sports gambling in Australia, you not only send Australian gamblers back into the DARK ages, but deny many of the means of a living. I bet on sport for a living with around 15 bookmakers, some here, some in the Caribbean, some in the UK. I shop around for the best price for my commodity, just like any citizen can do when shopping for a book for example. They can go to the local Angus & Robertson or they can visit Amazon.com and order it from overseas.

The Australian government does not have the exclusive right to every cent of tax I must pay. Foreigners can spend money within Australia, I can spend money outside Australia, from the comfort of my own home.
Anything less than that is purely hypocritical.

Improve conditions for bookmakers in Australia, help them generate more money from outside Australia and you will receive substantially more tax revenue on sports wagering from outside our shores rather than within.

Does the fact that Kerry Packer and Lloyd Williams donate significant amounts of money to political parties have anything to do with why casinos aren't involved?

Let's look at some of the problems associated with them - a large chunk of the problem gamblers, regular stories of Asian migrants losing their houses/assets because they couldn't control themselves, babies dying in hot cars parked outside casinos or pokies clubs, armed robbers flying to Star City Casino and blowing their loot within one hour (http://sportstoday.com.au/soccer/2001/03/27/FFXMAM5JSKC.html)

Casinos never stop, poker machines never stop. At least with racing and sports betting there are breaks between games, races etc where the rare problem gambler can stop to compose himself.

Regulate internet sports gambling properly, enforce sites to check ages more strictly etc - IT CAN BE DONE and work for all parties.

Regards
......