Laws and Rules of Play for Australians

There is no question about the fact that Australians like to gamble; in fact, if you are reading there is no doubt that you are very interesting in gambling as well. But will you be able to act upon your interest in online gambling in this political atmosphere? Let's explore that.

When we examine the idea of Australian online casinos, it is important to point out what that does and does not mean. If you want to be very literal about it, there really is no such thing as an Australian online casino, because the fact is, they are not permitted to exist. What does that mean, you ask? Well, a piece of legislation was passed over a decade ago called the Interactive Gambling Act of 2001. What this law does, in effect, is ban any Australian-based enterprise from offering "interactive gambling services" to Australian residents. And residually speaking, there are also various restrictions on advertising those services.

In other words, you can't have a company that is headquartered in Perth offering online casino gambling to citizens of Sydney. To do so would be a violation of the Act. This is really no different than what exists in the United States; in a sense that is. No companies located in the U.S. can offer online gambling to U.S. citizens, on a federal level. The new state laws that are going into effect involve companies that are licensed within a state being permitted to offer the gambling "product" to residents of that state.

There is one fundamental thing that characterizes the legal atmosphere in Australia. While it may be illegal for people or entities from within Australian borders to offer these gambling services, it has not been made illegal for companies who are OUTSIDE Australia to do it. Furthermore, there is nothing illegal about Australian citizens actually playing the games. So you don't have to worry about the cops busting down your door just because you are logged on to play some pokies.

Surely this climate will change over time. No, we are not talking about Australians being told that they can't play in online casinos any more. We are instead talking about governments getting into the act. As people have seen from the example of the United States, when governments, particularly on a state level, are desperate to increase revenues, they will undertake steps to do just that, and in the latest instance, that involves legalizing and regulating online gambling. You can expect that this will happen in a more widespread manner in Australia in the near future.