Australia gaming law report calls for greater player protection
Report suggests licensing of online casino and poker operators should not go ahead until 'harm minimisation standard' is implemented.
A review of Australia’s online gambling laws has led to a wide-ranging set of recommendations around stricter consumer protection, education and advertising guidelines.
The report into the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 (IGA), published today by the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, found that the law is failing to reduce the harm problem gambling can cause.
“The IGA may, in fact, be exacerbating the risk of harm because of the high level of usage by Australians of prohibited services which may not have the same protections that Australian licensed online gambling providers could be required to have,” the report stated.
The 180-page review made a total 32 recommendations to the Australian government, claiming that more than AU$1bn is wagered on as many as 2,200 egaming sites available in the country.
Its key recommendation focuses on the need for a national ‘harm minimisation standard’ for online gaming, claiming that licensing of online casino and poker operators could go ahead as long as they agreed to this standard and to offer lower risk forms of gambling such as tournament poker.
Moreover, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has confirmed that a five-year trial of online poker will not go ahead.
The report has been met with criticism from anti-gambling campaigners including Senator Nick Xenophon, who has previously described a Department of Communication report’s findings on social gaming as “pathetic”.
Xenophon described Tuesday’s report as a “cop-out” and said the recommendations could create a “new wave of gambling problems in Australia”, the SMH reported.
“If the current legislation was actually strengthened and enforced, the Federal Government would not need to be expanding online gambling and its associated harms,” Senator Xenophon said.
In November last year Xenophon’s legislation, which would have restricted financial transactions to online gambling sites, was described as “unworkable” by major banks and payment processors, which explained that it would affect normal ecommerce transactions, while a move to have casino sites included in a review of whether poker sites like Full Tilt and PokerStars were in breach of the IGA was rejected by the Australian Federal Police in May 2011.