Online casinos in Australia were legally regulated and hence licensed, audited, safe and fair for the most part, until March 20, 2017. This was when the Australian Government decided to fix something that wasn’t broken to start with. With the passage of the Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill 2016, the Australian Government have effectively forced online gambling underground and this has resulted in an unregulated market.
The supposed reason for the passing of this amendment bill is to “Protect Australian interests from illegal offshore gambling operators”. Essentially, the law prohibits persons or organizations from providing online casino services to Australian players unless and until said person or organization is exclusively permitted by the Australian state or territory.
Why the ban on offshore casino operators in Australia is a bad idea
There are a multitude of reasons why we believe the passage of this bill will only make things worse for online punters based in Australia rather than make it better.
Firstly, we know that prohibition rarely works. In this case, it is not going to stop online casino providers from disallowing Australian players, it will simply result in these casinos accepting Australian players illegally anyway.
The next problem is that all reputable online casinos are already licensed and regulated by a gambling commission, requiring them to get further licensing from the state of Australia is going to be a redundant procedure for which international online casinos could not care less.
Given that online gambling is no longer in its infancy, most punters understand how to filter out and choose a legitimate online casino for their gaming requirements. Punters like to have choices and they certainly don’t like it when something is pushed down their throat. They are not going to stop playing at their favorite offshore online casino’s simply because an amendment bill was passed in Australia.
Amongst other things, one of the biggest issues with the bill is that it cannot be enforced. Since, offshore online casino providers are located outside the borders of Australia, the Government of Australia simply cannot take legal action against them since they don’t fall under the Australian jurisdiction. Both online players and offshore casino providers are well aware of this. Furthermore, neither can Australian players themselves be penalized for playing at an offshore online casino which serves them. This essentially means that if you break the law, there can be no implications whatsoever.
Lastly, by outlawing offshore online casinos that are not exclusive licensed by Australia itself, not only does it result in a ban that is ineffective, but it further makes online gambling unsafe and unregulated for Australian players themselves, the exact opposite of what the ban is supposed to facilitate.
In summary, some of the main reasons the ban against offshore online casinos in Australia is a terrible idea are:
- Prohibition does not stop casinos, they just force them underground
- Legitimate online casinos are already licensed by gambling commissions
- Australian players want choices, not restrictions
- The ban cannot be enforced and legal implications for offshore providers and Australian players are non – existent
- Illegalizing offshore casinos, deregulate them, making them unsafe
For Australian players that want to continue playing at their favorite online casinos
For more that a decade and a half, Australian online casino players have been able to play real money games on their favorite online casinos in regulated, safe, tried and tested digital environments. As long as players have stuck with licensed, trustworthy online casinos they have always played risk-free and fair real money games.
If you are demoralized by the recent ban against offshore online casino providers, you should not be. Since internet service providers are, at least for the moment, not going to prohibit offshore casinos, you will still be able to access and play on your favorite online casino, be it an Australian online casino or an offshore online casino.
Furthermore, if push comes to shove and the government dictates that internet service providers will have to block all offshore casino providers, you can still go ahead and access the casino of your choice using VPN services or anonymous internet browsers such as the TOR browser and continue to enjoy services.
If the Australian government dictates that banks should start declining transactions to offshore casino’s using a credit card or debit card to fund your offshore casino account may seem a tough task. You should know that there is a workaround for that too. All you have to do is use an eWallet or cryptocurrency. There are plenty of renowned eWallets such as Skrill, Neteller, etc. which you can fund using your credit or debit card and then in turn use the eWallet to transact to your offshore online casino account.
Unfortunately, to ensure that they follow the law to the letter, a few offshore online casinos will stop accepting players based in Australia. If your favorite online casino happens to do this, then you can rest assured that there are still going to be plenty of other offshore online casinos waiting to serve you. Despite the regulation change, many online casinos and casino guides are still active in Australia and many of them such as AustralianCasinoClub.com have even been recently upgraded with new features to take advantage of the demand. Essentially, there are still offshore online casinos still serving Australian players where players from the land down under can play their favorite real money pokies, amongst several other types of real money games in AUD.
