Online Poker Industry Facing Threat In AustraliaNew Law Could Cause World's Largest Poker Site To Leave Market |
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The Australian government is currently mulling over a new bill that many fear will cause the top offshore sites doing business with Australians to pull out of the market.
According to a report from The Daily Telegraph, the legislation would prohibit foreign companies from offering poker within the country’s borders unless licensed. There’s currently no licensing process for online poker in the country.
However, under the way the bill reportedly is written, obtaining such a license for peer-to-peer poker wouldn’t be easy for those firms. The red tape appears to be unacceptable to the industry.
The threat, which comes in the form of an amendment to the Interactive Gambling Act 2001, has caused leading poker site 888Poker to leave the market earlier this month. There’s concern that PokerStars and PartyPoker may be next, according to the report.
“Amaya continuously monitors the regulatory environments of the countries in which it operates, and where a regulatory model exists always seek to comply with it," PokerStars’ parent told news.com.au. “While Amaya currently offers poker to Australian customers through PokerStars under its Isle of Man global gaming license, if proposed legislation passes into law players located in Australia would likely be blocked from playing on our sites.”
Lawmakers are grappling with how to regulate one of the largest gambling markets in the world. The size of the gambling market in Australia, home to 24 million people, is around $20 billion.
A report from The Guardian said that internet gambling is the fastest-growing segment of the country’s gambling market, increasing at a 15 percent clip year-over-year.
Australians spend more on gambling than people anywhere else in the world. An estimated 80 percent of Australians gamble in some form, also the highest rate in the world.
Gambling represents 1.2 percent of Australia’s GDP.
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