Australian Online Betting May Get Banned

Online betting in Australia is facing uncharted waters. Currently land based sports betting operates legally but many unlicensed online operators are providing sports betting solutions to Australians online and causing an uproar in the country.

Australian Senator Xenophon told an Australian newspaper that sports betting activity and constant broadcasting of betting odds by the general media are damaging the sports in the country.

The Senator stated that "there needs to be a complete overhaul of the Interactive Gambling Act. While the act is only 10 years old, there has been technological advances and exponential growth."

In recent months the whole world witnessed a growing trend of lawmakers the world over are struggling with issues of legality and regulation with regards to online gambling.

In some countries governments are edging towards legalizing and regulating the online gaming market following the realization that online gaming can provide a great source of added income for the state as a result of taxation.

Another factor that is effecting governments' considerations is the added protection that will be enjoyed by their residents who will gamble with state-licensed online gambling platforms and thus have some legal recourse against rogue operators that will risk losing their license if operating without transparency and not in accordance with the rules of fair play.

France, for example, has done just that and currently there are a limited number of licensed operators that compete in a regulated environment and pay taxes to the French government.

Other European countries seem to be also considering changing their stance and recently the Dutch government announced plans on relaxing its state monopoly and considering new ways of tackling online gambling.

Regardless of many European countries advancing towards some legal form of online gambling, the situation in the US is splitting the nation between those that support the crackdown on the online gambling industry and the events of Black Friday and Federal indictments to those violating federal law, and those who wish to see a legislative change happening in the country or individual US states.

Only time will tell how Australia will decide to move ahead and whether events in other countries will affect the future on online gambling in Australia.