Online Casino Blog

The leading worldwide accountancy firm KPMG has produced a report entitled 'Online Gambling. A Gamble or a Sure Bet?', which suggests that the global market for online gambling is likely to continue to grow quickly and that by 2012 it is projected to be worth $32 million.

 

Although the Australian online gaming industry is expected to increase at a slightly slower pace than the worldwide average, KPMG's Australian spokesman said that Australia really needed to consider what the benefits of changing the current restrictions on the online gaming business might mean for the country.

 

The potential for growth in this sector is huge, with one of the main areas of growth likely to be access to online games via mobile phones.

 

There are strict laws regarding online gambling within Australia, but this doesn't stop Australians using overseas sites, and as they do so, so any posiblility of tax revenue for Australia is lost.

 

If Australia were to get their online gambling policy right then there is potential for tax windfalls as well as attracting revenue from international players.

 

A regulated and legal online gambling policy has been recommended by both the KPMG report and a draft report by the Productivity Commission.

 

Opposition to such a move suggests that opening up the market would only increase problem gambling, whilst others state that a regulated market would be better able to provide support for the people who have addiction problems.

 

However, it is unlikely that such a controversial issue will be tackled by the Government in an election year, so it is to be supposed that there will be no action on the subject of online gambling, including online poker and online pokies, until after the election

It looks as though the NRL in Australia is a considering a promotion of offshore gambling which will avoid the law on unregulated foreign companies providing gambling services to Australians.

 

The 16 clubs in the NRL would advertise on FullTiltPoker.net and in return the clubs would promote the gambling company on their own websites.

 

At the present time it is expectd that there will be a trial period of a few months and that the advertisments would appear on a 'practice' site rather than on the official gambling sites.  Because no money will change hands on the practice site there is a strong argument that it will not break the law.

 

The Sydney Roosters already have a sponsorship arrangement with FullTiltPoker and have been asked to explain this deal to the Federal Government.

 

There have been many changes in interactive gaming in the 9 years since the government passed the law on internet gambling.  The Productivity Commission is currently holding an enquiry into the gaming industry and it seems that Australians gamble around $790 million on offshore sites every year.  This is about 3 times the amount spent on onshore sports betting and nearly half the total spent on race betting.

 

It will be interesting to see how this proposed venture proceeds and whether they encounter any problems with the Federal Government.