This story was published more than 5 years ago.
The government of Australia is considering a ban on betting on the outcome of lottery games within the country, potentially causing big name online operators like Lottoland from operating on the continent.
The federal government is looking to ban the betting on the draws after retail spots, pubs and other organizations lobbied the government to ban the bets as they fear they're losing business. The government hasn't decided officially to ban the bets just yet, and as such, there's no timetable for when they may be leaving the country.
Still, the move has Lottoland concerned, with the company's Australian CEO Luke Brill saying, "While we understand the concerns expressed by some newsagents, the proposed legislation is both misguided and unnecessary. The fact is that Lottoland does not offer betting opportunities on any Australian lottery, so our offering does not have a direct impact on newsagents."
Australian Communications Minister Mitch Fifield put out an opposite view, saying: "The government has formed the view that permitting betting on these services, also known as 'synthetic' lotteries, undermines the longstanding community acceptance of official lottery and keno products.
"These products enjoy community support as they generate an income stream for small retail businesses and make a significant contribution, through licence fees and taxation, to the provision of public services and infrastructure by state and territory governments.
"Traditional lotteries and keno games are popular and longstanding recreational gambling products that form an important income stream for thousands of small businesses across Australia, including newsagents, pharmacies, pubs and community clubs."
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Comments
Right now I don't want to be an Australian at all, what else would be banned there?
There's not many things left ... drinking? They just didn't though of that still I guess.
My first reaction to that sharpe is that drinking is one thing that I can assure you will never be banned. But then I remembered the conservative government here brought in "lockout laws" a few years ago that ban pubs and clubs from allowing people to enter the premises after 1:30am I think. i.e. you can be inside but once you leave you can't come back in and you can't get in anywhere else unless you travel away from the centre of the city. So i guess they have had a go at that too in their own small way.
This lottery thing is all about protectionism because people are betting on non-Australian lotteries, therefore the government and newsagents don't get their cut of the revenue. The Lottloland spokesman is being dishonest when he says this has no effect on the Australian lotto revenue because obviously some people are going to have a fixed budget and if they spend it online on his site they aren't going to spend it at the newsagent. A 10 year old could work that out, so I'm not sure why he even tried to make that argument.
sharpe
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It really feels like gambling is becoming almost unrealistic in Australia, the bans for online casinos, game providers and even payment methods is really serious.
For the good (mood 😉 ) of the nation I hope they wont Ed, I really do..will pray for you people ... otherwise who need a drinks down-town after 1:30am anyway, we are too old for that anyway (or just me 😀
But that rule sounds to be really strange, so I can't go out to smoke a cigarette let's say ( I guess you cant reek inside there?) and then return to finish my drink?
Yeah, I see now Ed, for me it's not a problem for people playing at foreign lotteries or whatever gambling might be as long as this companies operating legal and paying their taxes in that particular country, everyone's free to be involved whenever they think would get a better chance of winning...as long as government decides the local brands should be prioritised of course..which is exactly the case here in Bulgaria for example.