The 2017 Interactive Gambling Amendment Act enclosed some very important information for Aussie punters.
“An Act to amend the Interactive Gambling Act (IGA) 2001” that many of you are no doubt familiar with.
The original Interactive Gambling Act 2001 can be read here.
Essentially, the IGA in 2001 was passed by the Australian Government to protect the Australian public from the detrimental effects of online gambling.
The act was/is quiet broad and covered things such as; prohibited gambling services, excluded gambling and or wagering services, offences faced for breaches of the act, complaints and resolution systems, industry codes of practise, broadcasting, advertising and ethical behaviour.
*Important to note if you are skimming through either of the Act’s that the term Wagering is referring to sports betting and horse racing while the term Gaming is referring to casino like products.*
So on the 9th August last year the Interactive Gambling Amendment Act 2017 was passed because, to be frank, a hell of lot has changed in terms of the Australian wagering and gaming landscape over the last 16 years.
The amendments received Royal Assent on the 16th August 2017 and the majority of the act came into effect on 13 September 2017.
The key areas of focus were around combating offshore gambling operations operating illegally and shoring up consumer protection measures (that includes credit betting). It also stamped out William Hill’s controversial ‘click-to-call’ live betting work around.
The act made it very clear that it is illegal for gambling companies to provide certain services to Australians unless that company holds a license under the law of an Australian State or Territory.
From this we saw the likes of Ladbrokes move their Norfolk Island Gaming License up to the Northern Territory.
The credit related prohibitions will come into effect in February 2018.
Only last week we saw William Hill release in a trading statement the credit ban will have a big impact on their profit and it, along with Point-of-consumption tax were two key reasons they’ve elected to reevaluate their Australian business.
*Related: Point-of-consumption Tax*
Perhaps the most important issue raised for Punting Stars followers outside of the credit betting ban is the amendments in regards to offshore operators offering wagering services to residents living in Australia.
Such operators like low margin International sportsbooks Matchbook, 5Dimes and Pinnacle. As well as covering the mysterious Asian exchange market.
Given these wagering service providers cater for the sharper end of the market their Australia handle is quiet substantial albeit mostly pro money.
It would be reasonable for the average parliamentarian to think that if they force Australian residents to bet with Australian licensed operators this offshore money will return to Australia and be wagered via our platforms and therefore taxed and new revenue created.
However, as most of us know the willingness to take a bet of any size in the Australian market from sharp punters is almost non-existent in some sports and racing jurisdictions meaning that an onshore tax increase will be minimal at best.
There are a number of reasons that have led to the current marketplace in Australia, many of them were covered in our Point-of-consumption tax article last week and it is very important to remember that the likes of Pinnacle are able to operate with low vig because their licensing jurisdictions (Curacao in Pinnacle’s case) have very low tax rates.
Given the challenges facing most Australian bookmaking operations currently, it would seem unlikely that a high volume/low margin style of operator would dare try their hand coupled with the fact gaining a license in Australia for many of these bookmakers would also be a real battle.
To read the full Amendment Act you can visit Legislation.gov.au