Australia is working on developing a new approach to online gambling in order to take a chunk of the $634,000,000 that native Australians spend on online gambling sites that are based all over the world. These sites are not controlled in any way by the Australian government which means that there is no money from the residents going back into the country. As the laws stand right now the country is allowed to run online gambling operations with regard to horse racing and similar sports but cannot currently run traditional casino games like poker, roulette and blackjack.
According to the Financial Times, a statement from the Australian Commission on Productivity released said that they are concerned about online gambling due to a number of drawbacks. The fact that online gaming is available 24 hours a day allows people to bet money from credit cards, holds no betting limit size, has limited ability to monitor the activities of the gamblers including underage gambling, all leaving the governing body open to problems. On the positive side of the argument, the Australian government taking part in this activity will increase not only the competitive nature of the industry but will also provide additional, much needed, tax revenue.
