Last Ditch Effort to Exclude Poker Fails as Australian Senate Approves Online Gambling Ban. With a last minute attempt to amend the law failing in the Senate, there is now little to stop the anti-online gambling bill from becoming law—major online poker operators now expected to withdraw from market. Tue, Mar 21, 2017. Australian poker players will no longer have any legal online rooms to play on from next month after a dark day for the game down under. Last week the Australian Senate voted overwhelmingly in favour of the Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill 2016, effectively meaning legal online poker is banned in the country next month. Several online poker supporters in Australia have recently revived the fight for online poker. The game has been illegal in the eyes of the Australian government since 2017, but several staunch allies have continued to meet with lawmakers. The Australian online poker industry might be about to change for the worse if an amendment to the country’s Interactive Gambling Act 2001 comes into effect. Despite being something of a grey area for online poker since the industry started to boom, Australia has typically been a country of plenty for players and operators.

• Australian Online Poker Sites
• Australian Online Poker News 2019
• Australian Online Poker News Updates

Australia’s pending approval of amendments to its existing online-gambling laws that would effectively outlaw all such activity has drawn a last-ditch effort from the country’s online-poker players, in the form of an online petition its backers, the Australian Online Poker Alliance, plan to submit to Australia’s Parliament in the near future.

While the effort to obtain an online-poker carveout in Australia’s proposed (and likely to be approved) Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill 2016 appears earnest and sincere, it’s also likely to be an instance of too little, too late for the country’s online players. The second-largest international site previously serving the country, 888Poker, recently withdrew its services, and worldwide market leader PokerStars plans a similar exit at well.

It’s also true that online poker is being caught up in the wash, or, as some claim, the pending ban is an unintended consequence of the amendments’ primary thrust, to limit offshore sports books serving the Aussie market, and to tighten several other rules related to that pastime. However, poker is viewed with a slanted eye by many of the country’s politicians, and the overreaching consequences of the bill appear no accident at all. Parliament member Alan Tudge, of the ruling Liberal-National party, introduced the amendments last November in his role as Federal Human Services Minister. Nanny-state law or not, these new online-gambling amendments were deeply negotiated among many agencies and Parliament members before being introduced.

It can’t hurt to try a petition, the creators of the Australian Online Poker Alliance might reason, even if it’s not likely to help at this late date. The group has created an online presence here (that’s the group’s logo or preferred image or whatever at right), and there’s also linkage to the lengthy 2,300-word petition, which begins as follows.

Online Poker is a hobby enjoyed by many thousands of Australians on a weekly basis. Recently, the Federal Government introduced the ‘Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill (2016)’ to the parliament. This is an important piece of legislation which is looking to protect problem gamblers. It is looking to offer protections by banning unlicensed offshore operators and also by clearly clarifying and defining the laws around ‘in play’ betting.

This is a good initiative and something that is broadly supported by the Australian Poker Community.

However, as the Bill is currently written it will spell the end of online poker in Australia. The overwhelming majority of online poker operators utilised by Australians are run by offshore companies. There are no licensed Australian operators. The difference is, these are not small cowboy operations set up externally to exploit Australian laws. These are large publically [sic] listed companies listed on large scale economic centres such as the London Stock Exchange. …

And on from there, with more information on such concerns as why Australians should have the freedom to play online from their own homes, and an assertion — generally backed up by several recent studies — that online poker is less addictive than other gambling forms. There’s also a call for Australia’s government to study and emulate other international jurisdictions that have successfully licensed online poker, such as the United Kingdom.

To date, the petition has received nearly 1,700 verified signers from its current listing at survey-generation site change.org. The petition seeks at least 2,500 such signers but likely needs an order of magnitude more to generate anything more than a sniff from Parliament members, if indeed it reaches the threshold for submission.

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While casinos have been closed and sport is played behind closed doors, it appears online poker companies are raking in more money than ever during the pandemic.

Market Watch reports that New Jersey hit a monthly revenue record of $93.5 million in October from online poker and casinos, up 106.7 per cent from the same time last year.

Pennsylvania saw its online casino and poker rooms generate a record $59.8 million gross revenue in October, a record for the state.

Those two states, along with Nevada, have typically the most gaming revenue in the United States and are good indicators for the industry.

“On a purely business level, it strengthened our business. Our business has really thrived,” vice president of US Business at Gambling.com Max Bischel said.

“We had more people focused on online casinos. The online business grew substantially throughout quarter two and three to a new level.”

Gambling.com connects bettors with online gambling companies.

While no major professional and college sports were being played from March to May, the industry saw a big jump in its total players.

Bischel claims players who might normally bet on sports would play “a couple of hands of blackjack or sprint the roulette wheel a few times” during the summer sport hiatus.

Now that sports are back, bettors are not choosing to either bet on sports or play online poker, they’re doing both.

Australian Online Poker News 2019

“You’re back to pre-pandemic levels with sports, coupled with the increase in online casino activity,” Bischel said.

“It’s hard to think in retrospect what would have happened with a pandemic, but as the situation stands today, it’s pretty positive for the industry.

ONLINE POKER BOOMS: What's going on in the poker world? Check out our Chip Chatter column to find out: https://t.co/HnlrZJbGMy#poker#pokeronline#Nevada#LasVegas#highstakesfeud

Australian Online Poker News Updates

— US Poker (@uspoker) November 12, 2020

Aussie Millions poker event postponed indefinitely

The coronavirus pandemic has forced the indefinite postponement of the 2021 Aussie Millions, which may not return in 2021.

Cards Chat reported in November that Melbourne’s Crown Casino made the news public via an announcement on its website, citing safety concerns at the popular tournament.

The postponement comes just days after the Melbourne venue was given the green light to reopen in a limited capacity, with a maximum of 100 patrons permitted since mid-November.

Losing the Aussie Millions is a big blow for poker players, with the event a staple of the calendar since 1998.

Originally known as the Australasian Poker Championship, it was later rebranded as the Aussie Millions.

In the past two decades, the main event has grown in popularity, with the last three champions, Toby Lewis, Bryn Kenney and Vincent Wan all outlasting more than 800 players to win the $7,650 Aussie Millions Main Event.

The Australian series was also an early pioneer of super high roller events, with the $100,000+ events creating a new vibe at the event and ensuring big names continue to attend.

“Due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, Crown Melbourne wishes to advise that the scheduling of the 2021 Aussie Millions poker tournament and other poker events due to take place in 2021 will be placed on hold until further notice,” Crown’s website read.

Whether or not this means the event is on hold until 2022 is unknown at this point, with the situation currently fluid.

“Crown will continue to monitor and review the situation, working closely with the Victorian Government and health authorities to determine if and when such events can be safely revisited,” the update said.

Relatively low numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths in Australia hasn’t stopped officials from imposing some of the toughest restrictions in the world.

Stay at home orders have run alongside travel bans and the closure of non-essential businesses.

While some other major poker events have shifted online in 2020, due to regulatory restrictions in Australia, that would exclude one of the event’s main demographics.

Online poker has been illegal in Australia since 2001, but the Interactive Gambling Act until recently contained loopholes that allowed offshore operators to continue serving Australian residents.

The government closed these loopholes in 2017 with the Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill.

Pro online gambling groups have been fighting back, but every major operator has exited the market.