by Devon Chappell, News Staff Writer

October 22, 2009

Just like anywhere else in the world, people in Australia like to gamble. Not all of them, of course. But enough do to warrant gambling legislation and regulatory measures to ensure the government gets its fair share of revenue spent towards gambling. While land-based casino gambling and sports betting account for the bulk of regulated gambling in Australia, there is "betting activity" that is still unaccountable for.

Take a guess which one that is. Right - since Online Casino Suite is an informational online gambling website, it's safe to say that I'm referring to online gambling in Australia. In all truth, it simply is ironic that online gambling is illegal in Australia, for one of the first government regulated online casinos to be launched and take real money wagers was an Australia-based destination.

And that's the kicker. Even though Lasseters is based in Australia, not to mention the fact it is the largest casino operation in Australia's brick 'n mortar gambling industry, the Lasseters online casino is not allowed to take bets from Australian citizens. That's almost as ironic as Alana Morissette's fly in her Chardonnay.

But here is where things could be changing in the near future. Now that the Australian Federal Productivity Commission (interesting name for a commission, don't you think?) has released the findings of a study on how gambling has been impacting Australia over the years, policy toward online gambling could be overturned. In fact, the productivity commission has recommended the "online casino ban" be overturned based on the findings of the study, not to mention the fact that the ban is legally questionable and ineffective at protecting Australian citizens and preventing them from gambling online.

4% to be exact. According to the report, 4% of the Australian gambling market is now going to online gambling, which is likely a low estimate at that. Besides the fact that the government could stand to economically gain from taxing that money, the commission says that choosing to enforce an online casino ban is likely to draw lawsuits from legitimate foreign operators on the receiving end of the government's discriminatory policies.

The commission went on to say that so long as online gambling is unregulated, credit card betting will go unchecked and problem/underage gambling cases will rise. Just when you thought this only happens in the U.S., more evidence supports regulation of online casino sites. Lets hope that both the U.S. and Australia take heed and exercise some good sense.

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