As I said earlier in this thread, there is no chance in my mind that poker in Australia will be regulated. It will either be left on its own or disbanded completely due to the tax complications IMO of regulating online gambling compared to other forms of gambling in Australia. The greater possibility is that the former will occur.

You also have to remember that this government is no dill when it comes to the cost vs. benefit of various revenue raising schemes compared to the former Labor party - mark my words when it comes to any possible taxation of this past time that given the failed mining tax experience where it has only brought in to date into the federal government coffers around $400 million but cost $50 million to administer while spending billions on the basis of what they projected to receive, this government will tread very carefully when it comes to considering implementing a tax that will most likely cost far more to monitor than it will actually reap - look at the pokie regulator as an example.

Not poker related specifically but australian online gambling related

This site has been created and says it will go live in Feb unless live odds are removed from sporting events and betting isnt shoved down kids throats

http://simbet.com/

the site claims to offer free betting for kids so they can get better at gambling for when they turn 18. Its a bit of a pisstake but it could certainly get the jungle drums beating and online gambling back on the minds of politicians

it has some lol qoutes that I'm assuming are fake

SimBet made watching football with my dad way more fun! I won! James B, 6 years old

does australia not have arcades? those things sure feel like simulated gambling to me..

lol yeah ofc we do. we have even worse these machines pretty much pokies for little kids, you pay few $ and try to grab chocolate bars with a claw to push some down to you. Pretty funny, sometimes they are next to vending machines

haha - it's all about timing and making sure that you put your coin in when there is lots of chocolates on the side ledge to be pushed down.

Could kids play the Barry machines? Pretty sure they could

$1 quiz game placed around pubs, if you win the quiz you get a dollar prize ($100 was the max)

Games like Deal or No Deal and Who wants to be a Millionare etc, usually 20 questions to win it all. The questions towards the end were pretty absurd though, winning was extremely difficult

Kids should just start gambling the way I did: on Yahoo games

The guy from that site showed up in the sportsbetting forum

It's either got to be trolling or the money funding the site will be traced back to some anti-gambling movement

There's a contact us section, I left a comment telling them that I hope they get cancer and die. And I do. Using this to make an anti-gambling political point is shameful. I wouldn't even be too shocked if Xenophon supporters and/or Family First is behind this.

That said it's so transparent it won't fool anyone. Maybe if it didn't have the 'sportsbetting is a problem so let's teach it to kids!' monologue people might take it seriously.

I searched and they have a facebook page with 8 'likes'. I left them the first message on their page telling them to go **** themselves.

Pokemon yellow slot games for me.

I found the simbet site somewhat comical at least, hopefully it's just a joke.

Fun times. The game machine slot machines were removed in some version of the later pokemon games because of regulations though.
http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Voltorb_Flip

Governments ruin everything.

http://www.mondaq.com/australia/x/28...mbling+Reforms


I think they might attach online poker at the last minute

must read parliament comes back in feb 2014

You think? Do you have a source, or is this your random opinion? Online poker isn't mentioned at all on that page.

If you have any useful information (an inside source, or anything cited by a government spokesperson) that suggests that online poker will be covered in this bill please provide it, if not please stop fearmongering.

Tony Abbot has said countless times that ONLINE POKER IN AUSTRALIA is on the CHOPPING BLOCK

That link is important because it has already passed the house of representatives and anything could be added like, isp's to block pokerstars, full tilt poker,

Why is it relevent because it is being heard in parliament starting February

scaremongering, im not scaring anybody its been said countless times if u still havent realised, INTERNET POKER IS ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK

You know what vibe I seem to be getting every single time I read an article, or an interview regarding online gambling? Every time I read something similar, I come across the term "Poker Machines", which kind of leaves me to believe that the government are getting these two things confused.







Obviously it's hard to convince somebody who is unaware of how poker plays that it is a skill game over time, but I'm starting to become convinced that when the term "Poker" is thrown around, the government are thinking about the machines that will have pensioners wasting away their weekly cheques.
If you guys have ever been in a bar filled with pokie machines lately, you'd understand how depressing it is. People just feed a machine money and watch it pay out a small amount of what they put into it. I'll 100% stand by the governments decision to ban online POKIE machines, and to reform the pokie machine laws throughout Australia. If they want to ban Poker, they may as well ban stock marketing. That's something that requires skill but has more gambling than Poker does, in my opinion. When the stock market crashed it effected many more Australian's than are effected on Pokerstars on a daily basis.

Quote please. He said the Stars Iphone app is 'not on' or something similar, I don't recall any statement like the one you're alleging

Sources for your quotes or your post is worthless.

^ this confusion definitely happens.

Alot of family/friends, thought I was actually "playing the pokies online" once I told them I was "playing poker for a job".. even after semi-explaining it I still don't think a lot of them fully understand it.
People who don't understand the game or the community think of it as pure gambling like pokies, roulette etc and don't see the difference.
It really sucks that poker is even under fire in Aus most likely because A LOT of the people trying to ban it, simply don't get it.

It might be the case, to some degree. Maybe not, but it would make some sense.

If you look at the first post from today, you'll find the following quotes...


It makes me wonder. Every time 'Poker' has been mentioned in that article, not once did it refer to No Limit Hold'em, Pot Limit Omaha, Limit Hold'em, 7 card Stud, or any other player vs. player card game. It referred to pokie machines based on an RNG that pits the player against an unbeatable machine.

The Stars app being removed from the iTunes store isn't too surprising, but what if Tony Abbott got confused when being told about it's existence? If somebody came to his office, saying "We have a complaint about a Poker app that lets players use real money on their iPhone", he might have just taken that as there being a slot machine app with an unbeatable RNG. Somewhat makes sense if the slot machines/pokie machines get referred to in the same "Poker" basket as NLHE and the likes. Now mind you, I would still expect our PM to remove Pokerstars from the iTunes store if he knew it was just NLHE or something, but I'm beginning to hope that they might leave No Limit Hold'em alone for now, since it's not as large an issue as the slot machines they mention so frequently.

These sort of comments are completely uncalled for and you should withdraw them. The bill which repeals the national gambling reforms is an indication that Abbott will not do anything about online poker and not the other way around. FFS

Sadly you are mistaken. Carrying through their election position on pokies suggests intent to do what they said - and that includes clamping down on online poker as that is what they said.

The government will face criticism as being too pro gambling for doing this - one way to help their political position is to throw online poker players under the bus as political cover. This repeal does not help online poker at all - online poker is already banned.

Sorry I forgot the main point. This is the final paragraph of the link provided (to a law firms analysis of the bill) (same document different link).

http://www.addisonslawyers.com.au/kn...eforms539.aspx

clamping down on online poker means regulation? If so, lol

A 'similar overhaul'? Or in other words implement changes to the current law that reduces regulation on online gambling...thanks for proving my point.

err no, try some reading comprehension, this is the key bit

Is that simpler for you?

i pretty sure, they mix this up!

just wrote an article about gambling loses. i'm not up to date, what's the situation down under is, but whenever you've a petition or something similar, you might want to have some facts:

The house wins - Who gambles the most?
Source: http://www.economist.com/blogs/graph.../daily-chart-0

adult Australians spent more than UDS1.000 per year on gambling, but 'interactive gaming' is just roughly 10%.

And interactive gambling includes all things like Online Casino Games or Online Bookies. So 'Online Poker Losses' are really a very small number compared to the junk, Australians spent on 'non casino gaming machines' (50%+).

i believe that "tony's" eyes are firmly on tax ,

but with a bombardment of mail [lobbying] concerning one offshore operator who wishes to make up their own rules regarding rate of exchange , and NOT paying tax's .

giving "tony" a negative view on ALL on-line poker sites

can we not help the "on-line" poker industry , by bring all poker sites in line and all playing on the same field
sigh..........................