Australian Gambling Regulations

The political establishment of Australia is thoroughly against online gambling. Recently a federal enquiry has been set up by the country to look into online gambling and advertising. This is in connection with the Interactive Gambling and Broadcasting Amendment. Cormac Berry, the chief executive of Sportsbet put up a case for online gambling recently.

With regard to problem gambling, Barry said that operators of online gambling platforms provide greater protection than the land-based casinos. Internet casinos conduct a system of third party verification. Gamblers often try to wager way beyond the limit set by online casinos, by opening multiple accounts. They also open a new account with a different address, but use the same email ID and phone number. The real matching software used by internet casinos detects these common features of certain accounts and alert the verification team. These teams undertake intense monitoring and go ahead with appropriate actions.

Currently, casinos have a 90 day period for verifying the authenticity of customers’ accounts.  As pointed out by Barry, during this period, players cannot make payouts.  Barry also admitted the scope of a potential loss that players can face due to this regulation. He also said, that this verification period can be cut down. But if players are not allowed to create real money accounts within the 3-month verification period, the circumstances can be worse. This may lead to players opening accounts with unlicensed gambling platforms.

Barry understands the need of federal standards to ensure the protection of online gambling players. The best possible action that can be taken, according to him was, creating a scheme through which Australian gambling operators will make an annual contribution to a government fund. This will be used for research and counseling of gambling. Barry also stated that, there isn’t an evidence of the increase of problem gambling in Australia, after the introduction of online gambling in the country.