Australian gambling activities include casinos, lotteries, and other gambling services. In this article, we are going to place an emphasis on the legal status of online gambling in Australia.
You may be wondering whether online gambling is legal in Australia. You are not alone without insight. In fact, this is the common question that many people do ask. The common answer that they get is yes, but there is more to this ‘yes’ answer that you will be interested to hear. Australia’s government allows people to play gambling games on the internet. While the government allows you to place gambling bets on the internet, some restrictions do exist.
Legal online casinos in Australia January 2018
However, most of these restrictions have minimal effect on gamblers but more effects on online casino operators. For instance, the country’s 2001 Interactive Gambling Act came with limitations that affect gambling operators more than gamblers.
The Australian gambling legal framework may change anytime. Some of the current lawmakers are trying to make online gambling a safe haven while others are trying to enforce a tighter regulatory framework for online gambling. On the government side, they are focused on providing additional and better counseling services with regards to protecting both the online operators and gamblers. The government is also dedicated to monitoring online gambling bookmakers, and they are about to enforce laws that could self-regulate online gambling activities.
2001 Interactive Gambling Act
Operating an online casino was legal before 2001. However, the 2001 Australian Interactive Gambling Act was passed in June 2001. Its main intention was to protect the public from negative effects of online gambling. The act prohibited offering real-money online interactive gambling services to Australian citizens. The law also outlawed advertising ‘real-money interactive gambling services’ to Australian citizens.
While the Act did not legalize the operation of online casinos, companies can still provide interactive gaming to other approved residents. If you are found guilty of the laws above, you will face a $220,000 per day maximum penalty and $1.1 million per day for the company.
The above Act does not prohibit gamblers from placing bets at online casino sites, and many foreign companies operating online gambling sites offer their services to Aussie players up to this moment. Technically, these operators are in violation of the 2001 Interactive Gambling laws, but there have never been serious attempts by the current government to close and prosecute these operators.
