So your answer is "Yes i do want to bumhunt ****regs" and then my "soon enough theyll stop playong cause they cant win" statement now applies yet again. I hear you that the games are soft, I live and play in Melbourne where the games are juicy as FARQ. but for the good of the game we need to be in the international pool, IMHO. that doesnt mean i say that all poker players are professionals trying to earn a wage. albeit a small one. there is a part of the australian poker scene that lives on the motto of "no gambol no future". but im sure there are some people, who could/would become students of the game, grow the game and crush online internationally. it could offer a whole new "career" aspect for players in australia to also stream on twitch with alot more frequency, with games being more readily available on platforms such as stars,party,888 rather than the ignition/ACR. The leagalization reform of online poker about way more than a few people who right now have a subpar concept of the game bumhunting those who have no concept of the game. because thats the utopia you're describing. and if is your that end game, thats helps noone but yourself, but hey typical poker player amirite.

Great to see this news Joey! Look forward to hearing more updates within the coming months.

On the segregation/non-segregation issue can we just stop talking about this? Segregation is clearly a terrible idea for both operators and players, and getting games to actually run. People want access to all the vast game types/stakes offered online and the big tournament series etc. We just want the ability to play the same as we did before the law changed. If you actually think about what online poker would look like with AUS only player pools it would be beyond a joke and unless you're the single guy who happens to benefit from the exact game running then its just awful.

I thought swoope made it clear we are not looking at a seg pool but modelling on the UK.

I want to play the milly and where there is high traffic / guarentees and all the big series like powerfest, scoop etc

but wait dont you know that PPPoker games a notorously soft and you could maybe win at 200nl like hypothetical Susie? Shes a greast pub player after all?

Id rather play the micro milllions on stars/ scoop and wcoop, the powerfest on party. where all the major tourneys and MASSIVE GTDS are!!! Ill play a tourney with a great structure on party for $11 with a $3k gtd with a slightly tougher field over a $11 pub poker, joke of a structure shove fest tourney with $50 in club vouchers as the 1st prize any day of the week.

In other news, I received an email From Andrew Verdon. Apologies for the poor formatting as i have copied and pasted directly from a PDF. this has some promising language in it in the reform section.

Dear Mr "Deyweresooted"

Online Poker

Thank you for your email dated 16 April 2019, to the former Minister for Communications and the Arts, Senator the Hon Mitch Fifield MP concerning online poker. Your correspondence has been referred to the Hon Paul Fletcher MP, Minister for Communications, Cyber Safety and the Arts as he has portfolio responsibility for the matter you raised. I am responding on behalf of the Minister and I apologise for the delay in responding to you.
-----.

Online poker has never been formally permitted in Australia under the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 (the IGA) which makes it an offence to provide or advertise prohibited interactive gambling services or unlicensed regulated interactive gambling services to customers in Australia.

.
Since the IGA's inception in 2001, prohibited services have included online casino-style gaming services of chance or mixed skill and chance, including blackjack, poker machines and poker, which are played for money or anything else of value. The intent of the IGA is to minimise the scope of problem gambling in Australia,

This is why there have never been any Australian licensed providers of online poker. However, Australians have until recently been able to access overseas based online poker sites as the IGA was ambiguous about the legality of providing such services to Australians.
In 2015 the Government commissioned a Review of Illegal Offshore Wagering, conducted by the Hon Barry O'Farrell (the O'Farrell Review). The O'Farrell Review found that up to $400 million is spent by Australians on illegal offshore gambling providers each year. This presents several problems:
Greater risk for consumers because legal protections are not in place and standard consumer protections are often absent. Less tax revenue for governments, less product and other fees for the racing and sports industries, and fewer jobs for Australians. Some illegal offshore gambling sites are connected to crime syndicates.
The amendments to the IGA came into effect on 13 September 2017 and implement a number of the Review's recommendations to strengthen the enforcement of the IGA. The amendments will uphold the original intent of the IGA and will:

.........................
Make it clear that it is illegal for overseas gambling companies to offer permitted gambling products to Australians unless the person or company holds a licence under the law of an Australian State or Territory. . Empower the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) with new civil penalties, complementing the existing criminal penalties powers held by the Australian Federal Police. The ACMA will be responsible for the entire complaint handling process from receipt to enforcement. Introduce other disruption measures to curb illegal offshore gambling activity, such as placing company directors or principals of offending gambling companies on the Movement Alert List so that travel to Australia can be disrupted.

.
The Government's online wagering reforms, including the National Consumer Protection Framework which was announced on 30 November 2018, will significantly strengthen the consumer protections covering online gambling activity. I expect this will strengthen the case for reforms that would expand the permitted online services to enable online poker services to operate within Australia. The Government will continue to carefully consider this matter.
Senate Inquiry into Online Poker
As you note in your email, on 13 June 2017, it was announced that the Senate Environment and Communications References Committee will conduct an inquiry in relation to online poker. Matters which were examined were:

the participation of Australians in online poker;
the nature and extent of any personal or social harms and benefits arising from participating in online poker;
and whether the current regulatory approach, in particular the IGA and the Bill, is a reasonable and proportionate response to those harms and benefits.

The Inquiry received 266 submissions and 29 short statements. The Committee's final report was tabled in Parliament on 18 October 2017. The Government is currently considering the recommendations made under this report and will respond in due course.
For information on the inquiry including the final report and its recommendations, please visit the Parliament of Australia website at: www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary Business/Committees Senate/Environment and Communications/ Online Poker.

Yours sincerely,

Andrew Verdon
Director Online Gambling Section

don't move to nz to play online poker. they are banning credit cards.
move to the uk where its the land of plently. aus is ****ed too.

They just had to use a poker stock photo...
https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2019-...cRAFFfOr3VIO8g

I hope this Crown scandal doesn’t sour the mood for legalising online poker.

When Nathan guy was minister for primary industries he was trying this with the agenda of the racing industry in mind. He didn’t get far. Not sure why and maybe SKYCITY will wield a bigger stick. **** takes a long ass time to happen with NZ politics

What happened to that thread you started I can’t find the link

Soooooo any news?

I check the thread daily. I will update when Joey has given me any new information. I'm checking in with him once a week or so to see if there's any new info. When his meeting's taken place i'm sure we'll hear about it.

Love your work Swoop. I'm a lil fish but looking forward to playing on the weekends again. Is this meeting of Joey's locked in or is he still trying to make it happen?

The cheque is in the mail.

Swoop/Joey, as one poster above raised - any feel if the recent negative publicity around Crown has delayed the timetable? Noting this is likely to get the Wilkie et al crew fired up again, I can see a scenario where the government wouldn't want to be seen to be allowing more gambling right now.

Id say the biggest thing around this is that all this crown junket business ends up opening up a conversation around political donations from the gaming sector and calls for a federal corruption watchdog. There has even been calls for a royal commission, although unlikely this would not be great for us esp if its dragged on for months on end like the banking one was.

Usually these things flame up for a few weeks and then die down and get taken over by the other news of the day. Lets hope as much, people are already forgetting about it and not giving it oxygen

I have no idea if the Crown stuff affects our timetable or not. I'll send Joey a message now asking whether the meeting's happened yet or timeline if he knows but afaik the meeting is a lock to happen it's a matter of timing for Joey and the minister.

Btw there are a couple more sites taking Aussies now but seem to be invite only (mostly cash game only ones) i'm not going to post about them publicly but if anyone wants some info I can pass it along via PM. I've been enjoying playing mixed games on one of them a bit recently as there aren't a ton of non holdem options for Aussies but this one's been decent for me.

Hopefully we'll have more info soon about whether this is just going to happen or whether we need to take any sort of an active role lobbying.

hi swoop long time lurker of this thread, thanks for what you are doing for online poker in aus, cannot wait for it to return, could you please shoot me msg with the sites you play on. im on iggy and acr already. cheers

I used to love being able to play 1/2 NL poker on PokerStars before Big Brother (Australian Government) stepped in and banned it. I never was a big gambler, but playing for play money just does not give me the same Buzz.

I can't PM new accounts but feel free to message me on facebook or twitter

I'm sure a lot of other people here are playing on invite only sites as well; but yeah, Ignition/Bodog is prob the best option for MTTs or for a regular public site and obv the cash games are best on either the apps or invite only sites probably at the moment.

Hopefully just a matter of time until we get the big sites back, we'll know one way or the other pretty soon hopefully.

Haven't heard from Joey in a while I know he's busy but hopefully we have an update soon from him and i'll obv update the thread when we do.

moving back to aus shortly in 1 month and would love to play some mtt's on stars? are the bigger sites like stars going to be available to play on in western australia? will it only be australian players on there or row too?

in the meantime is ignition good? can't check it out in my location atm.

PokerStars no longer serves poker to Australian customers

https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/2...hread-1142716/

Yes you can play on Ignition, no you can't play on Stars

Sorry if its already been answered. But is ACR currently useable in Australia? I know it requires bitcoin deposits but is it still useable or has it been blocked?

I believe if you had an account previous to when they weren't accepting aussies you are able to play there still, but if you looking to create a new account i don't think your able to deposit.

Any news?