Australia

It is quite common to see the countries establishing some sort of the gambling regulation around online gaming sector. While such countries as Czech Republic and the Netherlands have started issuing some of their requirements, more advanced countries like Malta and the UK have gone a step further by expressing their opinion on bitcoin gambling websites. It is clear that the regulators want to make the whole industry safer for the players, less accessible for the unregulated operators and, finally, more profitable for the local governments. Today we would like to update you about the plans of the Australian regulator and its possible influence on the global brands.

Australia is set to regulate gambling

For years online gaming companies with an offshore license could target Australian players. Now Australia has completely transformed this situation by amending its 2001 Interactive Gambling Act. The main idea of this will be to allow only operators that are licensed and regulated in Australia to operate in this market. Also, this amendments comes with some heavy fines. An individual offering illegal gambling activities may be fined with up to 1 million USD and if such violations are done behalf of the company, a fine may reach 5 million USD. This way Australia cleans up all of the gray areas in its regulative regime, an operator can either be locally regulated or operate illegally. It is yet unclear how Australian Communications and Media Authority treats all kinds of bitcoin gambling activities, but we assume they fall under the same amendment in the act.

What is the indirect impact?

Some regulations, like the in New Jersey, allow companies to operate as long as they operate legally and are not prohibited elsewhere. The last part is the key here. The upcoming changes to the Australian regulation have nothing to do with poker. In other words, poker rooms will not be able to get any regulation in Australia, yet they will become illegal. Hence, potentially a large poker room like PokerStars would have to choose between operating in Australia without any regulation or operating in New Jersey under regulation. Both options will not be possible. It is likely that other countries may follow a similar model, hence it is expected that the operators will be launching different brands for black, gray and white markets.

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