Poker legislation. Australian players are worried the game they love could soon disappear under new rules set to be passed in the coming weeks, the amendment is designed to protect problem gamblers and prevent offshore companies skirting current regulations around live in-game betting.
This changes will mean offshore gambling sites will be forced to jump through strict new regulatory hoops in order to operate in this market. The amendments to the existing rules are expected to be voted on during parliament’s next sitting.
However, Sydney investment banker Joseph Del Duca, has created the Australian Online Poker Alliance (AOPA) in an effort to lobby the government to make changes to the bill in order to preserve “skill based player-to-player poker games”. Because he fears the wording of the bill is too broad and will force the big poker sites from the market.
His exacts words were “The intent of the bill is admirable. It’s not the intent of the bill to ban online poker ... it’s just an unfortunate by product of the wording of it,” he added “Offshore operators aren’t allowed to provide services in Australia unless they’re licensed but these poker sites can’t get licensed in Australia because in relation to the Act, poker is considered a prohibited game”. (READ SO ONLINE POKER FORBIDDEN IN THE EE.UU)
While poker is not singled out in the legislation, the likely interpretation of the wording in the amendment will see offshore poker sites unable to continue to operate for Australian users.
Poker site 888Poker.com has already pulled out of the Australian market in anticipation of the law passing, PokerStars and PartyPoker may follow suit.
Eric Hollreiser, the Vice President of Corporate Communications for Amaya Inc. said “Amaya continuously monitors the regulatory environments of the countries in which it operates, and where a regulatory model exists always seek to comply with it. While Amaya currently offers poker to Australian customers through PokerStars under its Isle of Man global gaming license, if proposed legislation passes into law players located in Australia would likely be blocked from playing on our sites”. (READ SO POKERSTARS DOES NOT GO PRIVATE THIS TIME)
Mr Del Duca fears the only sites that will stick around will be the dodgy ones.
“These large companies aren’t set up offshore to try and flout Australian laws, they’re large multinational companies that are publicly listed on stock exchanges ... and offer services worldwide to players from every country,” he said. “These are the companies we want to be dealing with because they’re publicly listed, they care about their image. These companies will pull out of the market if this law comes through as it is, and that will only leave companies that don’t particularly care about their image — more of your black-market operators — which the bill is trying to protect us from.”
While some players will no doubt employ a virtual private network (VPN) to shield their location and continue playing, Mr Del Duca said most players he speaks with don’t have the computer knowledge to do something like that.
