A report from the Daily Telegraph states that Australia could offer online “in-play” betting, in a briefing sent by the Gillard government to members of the gambling industry, the down under could see approval of online in-play betting within 6 to 12 months time, to supplement Australia’s existing egaming industry.
Many Australian’s are already believed to be betting online and the changes could create a new $300 million segment of the gambling industry.
Right now as it stands the inconsistency of allowing phone betting and not the use of the internet is taking issue with some. Stephen Conroy, Communications Minister stated the following,
“While the State of Origin was on last night, you can pick up a phone and make a bet, [but] you can’t go online and make a bet,” he told Channel Nine. “So you’ve got a situation where if you make the phone call it’s legal, if you try and do it online it’s illegal. “And that seems an anomaly … this is one of the issues that needs to be looked at so that you’ve got consistent laws.”
Online poker was another issue addresses as News Ltd. reports the government also plans to allow Australian gambling firms to offer online games such as poker and roulette.
An email from Merril Lynch analyst Mark Bryan sent to the company’s clients stated, “In-play live online betting, many in the industry indicated that they expect this to be legalized alongside poker in the next six-12 months following overseas precedents.
Anti gambling advocates are also attacking the decision after claims that Conroy was “backflipping on Labor’s opposition to the expansion of online betting.” Their stance is that if allowed, “risk to problem gamblers outweighed the benefits” of allowing the live in-play betting.
Conry stated further, “We are phasing out the copper network and replacing it by fibre so effectively when people move to a VOIP phone service and pick up the exact same physical phone they were using before the copper was turned off they will suddenly be committing an offence by accident,” he said.
“Technology is leaping ahead of the legislation.”
South Australian Independent Nick Xenophon, an anti gambling advocate, offered a statement declaring an attack on the changes, claiming “a betrayal” after the recent poker machine crackdown.
Xenophon claims, opening up online gambling will be bad for young Australians.”With online gambling, you will see a new tidal wave of problem gambling, particularly amongst a younger demographic – young Australians will be hurt by this,” he said.
Reported by Maggie B.
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