Home / Poker News October 2009 / Online poker to be legalized in Australia?
Online poker to be legalized in Australia?
Posted by: James Carter. - Sun, 2009-10-25 16:16
Australia’s own version of the UIGEA, the Interactive Gambling Act might be about to suffer a major setback. The Australian Productivity Commission has just proposed the “managed liberalization” of online gambling (and
online poker) in Australia, through a draft report released the other day. Just what sort of authority is the Australian Productivity Commission you may wonder…Well, it’s the independent advisory body for microeconomic reform of the Australian Government, so yes, it’s recommendations re likely to be treated extremely seriously in the highest legislative circles.
A total of 264 various organizations put in submissions in favor of having online poker and gambling liberalized in Australia, and the Interactive Gambling Act repealed.
The Productivity Commission’s draft document references these submissions several times throughout, and eventually draws the bottom line at squarely recommending that the Australian Government repeal the IGA and start consultations with state governments about having online gambling liberalized in a controlled, managed manner.
Obviously, the organizations whose submissions were considered in the Productivity Commission’s draft were pleased about the outcome. They didn’t miss the opportunity to point it out that the actual risks associated with online gambling are lower than in the case of land based gambling and the managed liberalization of the games will help to reduce problem gambling in Australia.
If the federal government would indeed consider the PC’s recommendations and a repeal of the IGA would result, the impact on online poker would be difficult to assess. While Australia is nowhere near as big a market for online gambling and online poker as the United States, the move would not only prove that shoving anti-online gambling legislation aside is indeed the way forward, it would also set a precedent in abolishing these laws on account of economic considerations.
If the government of Australia were to consider that it is in the nation’s financial interest to toss the IGA out the window, US lawmakers would at least have to seriously consider the same approach.
Though the question of costs on online poker and gambling operators in case of a managed liberalization remains, the fact alone that a body like the PC finds the move financially sound is a huge step forward for the industry.
