We Take a Look at Some Updates to Australian Gambling Law That Affects Online Gamblers

Added: April 6, 2014

Australian gambling law can be quite odd in many ways, and this is no more evident than when we consider how it affects Australian online gamblers, and online gambling sites that want to do business within Australia. In this post we are going to take at some of the more recent issues with Australian online gambling law and how it may affect online gamblers.

First up, let’s take a look at something that happened towards the end of last year. The Advertising Standards Board made a ruling, which confirmed that a complaint made about a TV advertisement that was supposed to dissuade young Australians from getting into online gambling, actually had the opposite effect. The advertisement was stopped. This is a bad sign for online gamblers in Australia, as it shows that the government is against online gambling in many ways.

Online gambling companies have been trying to find ways around the often strange online gambling law in Australia. For example, Ladbrokes has managed to get an online gambling license in the Norfolk Islands. This has so far helped to let Ladbrokes to continue operating its online gambling site legally in Australia, good news for Australian online gamblers.

On the other hand, we have the case where an Australian online gambler took up a case against Sportsbet. This ruling was made in favor of Sportsbet, saying that the online gambling site could restrict the actions of its members, without being juxtaposition to Australian consumer laws. Another bad thing for Australian online gamblers.

Also we have the intriguing case of Centrebet v Baasland. This was a show down between two online gambling sites. One based in Norway, the in the Northern Territories of Australia. The result of this, is that the government sided with the local Australian online gambling site when making its decision.

If we can take one thing away from these examples of how ludicrous online gambling law in Australia actually is, it must be the fact that deciding who is right and who is wrong, seems almost random, with conflicting decisions made over similar issues.

We can only hope that at some stage in the near future, that the Australian government takes a close look at gambling law, and updates it to reflect the needs of Australian online gamblers, in a world where online casino play is fast becoming the norm. We need these laws revised.