More than a year after the passing of the now-infamous Interactive Gambling Act, the Australian gambling market remains in a state of confusion. As the country and its millions of gambling citizens continue to deal with the subsequent fallout from the draconian laws, a number of questions yet remain.
Foremost of these is why–despite the ban on online casinos and poker rooms–sports betting sites are still allowed to operate. Even as casino and poker room operators exit the Australian market in droves, sports betting still continues to flourish, seemingly free from restrictions.
The Passing of the Interactive Gambling Act
It will be recalled that the country passed the Interactive Gambling Act in 2016, to considerable outcry from the gambling public. As shown at CasinoShortList and many other online gambling sites, the clamor against the new restrictions was unanimous, and it seemed that no one thought that they would benefit the industry in any significant way.
Further amendments to the Act did nothing to dispel the ill-feelings that people had toward it. In March 2017, a new round of changes was again approved by the Australian Senate. Passed in August 2017, the changes effectively resulted in a total ban on all online casinos and online poker rooms in Australia. Thirty days later, the law had come into full effect.
The Interactive Gambling Act and all its various amendments were supposedly instituted in order to curb the less-desirable effects of gambling, most notably, gambling addiction. This is all well and good, and many industry practitioners and members of the general public are in agreement that such unsavory aspects of the industry have to be dealt with.
The Issue of Gambling Addiction
And yet, the question remains as to why sports betting is still allowed. Isn’t sports betting every bit as conducive to addiction and compulsive behavior as online gambling? Doesn’t it also come with the risk of potentially harmful decisions and consequences? A look at some of the sports betting stats in Australia might provide some clues to those questions.
According to the report, up to 41% of all sports bettors in the country reported experiencing some sort of gambling-related problem. That’s a whopping 234,000 adults, and that was only for 2015. Regardless of how you look at it, this suggests that sports betting is just as likely to cause a problem as online gambling.
At this point, we would just like to express our opinion that online gambling is just like any other activity, in that it is no more or less prone to abuse than any other activity performed regularly. This is not to say that the risks associated with it are patently false–only that there is no reason to suggest that online gambling is any more addictive than sports betting.
Playing devil’s advocate here for a minute, let’s just suppose that online gambling is indeed the public menace that Interactive Gambling Act advocates are painting it out to be. Why then is it the sole target of the new legislation, while sports betting operators are seemingly allowed to carry out their activities without fear of legal consequences? Doesn’t that seem just a little bit one-sided and contradictory?
The name itself is more than just a little bit misleading: “Interactive Gambling Act”. How much more “interactive” can you get than betting on sports? No offense intended, but a lot of those that are heavily into sports betting live, breathe, and bleed sports stats and figures! Their entire lives practically revolve around odds, ranks, results, and outcomes!
We gotta say, all this seems just a little bit suspicious and slanted against the online gambling industry. Someone more paranoid might even suggest that the new laws unfairly favor the sports betting industry.
Clamor Against Online Gambling Ban
Obviously, we’re not the only ones that have a beef with the Interactive Gambling Act. No less than Senator Leyonhjelm has voiced his opposition to the Act, calling it–and we quote – “Stupid”.
Despite his opinion running counter to that of his esteemed colleagues, the good senator had a lot more to say about the Act, the gambling industry in Australia, and the online poker industry in particular.
One of the more interesting developments in all this was the proposal of a report on the online poker industry that was to be published in September 2017. The report was aimed at examining player perception of the industry. Critics of the Act–Senator Leyonhjelm among them–expressed their hope that the passing of the bill would be postponed until after the report was released.
No such luck. The bill was passed as planned, subsequent amendments were made–none of which proved to be beneficial to the online gambling industry–and the rest is history.
A Call for Equal Treatment
Like Senator Leyonhjelm, we strongly feel that the online gambling industry should be regulated, rather than strictly banned across the board. Why should online gambling operators and their customers be the only one to bear the brunt of the new laws? Surely the gambling industry is just as deserving of the concessions granted to sports betting establishments?
The point of all this isn’t to suggest that online casinos and online poker rooms be allowed to operate with no regard for the law. Many of us that are opposed to the bill aren’t opposed to regulation. In fact, we welcome it.
Sports betting is still so big and is more of an issue online that virtually every sports betting site in Australia crashed last week with betting on the Melbourne Cup
All we are saying is that online gambling should be given the same fair shot that the sports betting industry enjoys. If anything, certain types of online gambling activities should be given even more leeway, as they are actually more like games of skill than games of chance. In contrast, sports betting is almost entirely luck based, unless guessing sports event outcomes based on odds and ranking counts as skill.
At the end of the day, all that online gambling advocates really want is a fair shake. Sure, continue to regulate the industry and work to minimize its potentially harmful effects. But don’t outlaw online casinos and let sports betting operators continue to operate and expect the gambling community not to make a fuss.
