Andrew Wilkie's 'Gambling Reform Policy' is being heavily pushed through Canberra as i type this, most of you will be aware of the proposed changes to pokie machines but if you read the policy statements carefully they have made serveral mentions of online gaming, and online gaming payment methods. The details are extremely vague at this point, but statements such as 'online gaming laws will be assessed' and 'current online gaming legislation is not effective,' are enough to give you goosebumps.

This could be the storm brewing for an Aussie Black Friday and i think it is important all of us stay on top of this and hopefully prevent Anna Bligh and Kevin Rudd passing any sort of legislation similar to the UIEGA in the same underhanded and deceiving fasion. If they want to ban online gaming, they are going to have to tackle it head on if people are aware of what is happening. Seeing the recent events in America has given us a wake up call and we know the government will not hesitate to attack online gaming if given half a chance.

Any articles or info posted here will help a lot.

I agree with the sentiments expressed here although I think OP should directing attention to the prime movers in the Gillard government.

As the poker community is relatively small in Australia and not organised we are going to need to think about what we can do to help the situation.

For instance, I sent a letter to the editor of the Australian protesting over the negative coverage of Stars and Tilt in relation to their local operations and it wasn't published. This is the first time I have had a letter rejected by them.

So the task will not be easy and we can't be sure yet of what intentions there are over the whole parliament.

The truth is our game operates in a very legal grey area and the only sure way of securing it's future is to have poker exempted from the wording of the IGA in the same way as sports betting and horse racing.

If any one is aware of local attempts to have a lobby organisation set up similar to the PPA then I would be interested as well. As yet I have not heard of anything being proposed.

Although Im not sure of the specifics of what we can do yet what I am sure of is our future access to games is far from secure.

Would appreciate much discussion of this, lets put our heads together and start planning.

cheers

Bruce

+1 please

go america, go aussie

the fact that there is a law in place already that is not enforceable or is not enforced would indicate that any new laws that they bring to the table just would be an overlay of what they already have.

the details announced through the australian was that they would ensure that any bets levied through the use of a credit card are not valid.

But arguably sites do not allow bets levied via credit cards, they take the money into a separate trust account and you levy them from this account.

but given that the law would require you to prosecute for payment, it is highly unlikely it will work given that no one is going to sue somene for a $50 bet when its hard enough for the government to enforce its $1m dollar an offence legislation.

I dont think much will change here unless they attempt to enforce the law or seize assets to pay for charges levied under our current law.

and we know this wont happen cause the assets here are probably all to do with play money games....and are probably owned by a unrelated company...we have rules about siezing stuff and so forth....and companies can not just be lumped together that easily is my understanding.

Sorry, i posted this after a session at the casino at about 4:30am, was very tired and forgot to point out that this was in the works since K Rudd was in power, thats why i made mention to him but yes we need to stay on top of what Julia Gillard and the morality police are up to or we could see outselves going down a slippery slope to what the Americans are having to deal with now.

Anna Bligh, even though mainly effecting Queenslanders is also a major backer of this scheme and it seems QLD will be hit the hardest with the pokie legislation, as for online gaming, nobody can be sure and thats pretty scary.

I completely agree with you, an Australian version of the PPA would help our cause a lot, maybe we could get the APL and ANZPT involved as well. I think the problem is people wont worry till it is too late, people will wait until they pass the legislation and then decide its time to do something. This is inevitable, but all we can do is keep finding out what is happening for them and inform them somehow so they realise Julia Gillard means business and ur first on the agender for a bitch slap.

does this involve all online gambling or just gaming?
the size of sportsbet is huge now and they advertise the shyte out of it.
would be chaos if that got shut down...

Can someone share a link to this bill and the language that talks about online gaming?

I just had a look @ the http://www.aph.gov.au/bills/index.htm website where they list every single bill that's going through parliament atm and I couldn't find anything that involved online poker or online gambling - Wilkie/Xenophons poker machine legislation isn't even in there yet from what I can see.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/ga...305-1biv8.html

http://australian************s.com/a...ntrols-59.html

And here is the 'Australian internet filtering survey'
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NN3JX95

Here are some news articles, and for those who dont think its going to happen to them look up the 'interactive gaming act of 2001', and also 'gambling reform Australia', and 'online gaming laws Australia'.

Be aware that under the interactive gaming act of 2001 we are already neck deep in it, online poker is officialy illegal to be provided to Australians. Lekel you need to look harder, the pokie legislation is going through 100%. Thinking that your gov will look after you and everything will be OK is fine for you, but leave this thread alone and dont take away from the seriousness of all this.

Also SIR_Random, sports betting is exempt from the IGA of 2001, the government is a corrupt dog ready to bow to its masters, so of course the sports betting industry was protected in amongst the BS. People dont even realise this is happening and online poker is about to be swept out from under us like a rug. Makes me so sick how when it all falls apart they will be the same ones saying 'OMFG, this isnt fair', but they will wait until its too late to get involved.

The AFP are already boasting they are following up 17 complaints regarding online gaming being provided to Australians. It is time to act Now!

source please? i'm not saying you're not credible. i'm very interested in the topic of this thread. that's why i want to see the AFP saying they are following up this online gaming business.

Reading endless articles and attempting an interpretation of the law is fun and everything but what can we do about it?

http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/committ...tising/tor.htm

This is a link for what Wilkies gambling committee will be looking at. They are currently NOT looking @ online poker specifically, Wilkie/Xenophon just want to get poker machines regulated, and the above link is what Wilkie plans to look at next.

after looking in to a bit more - you can submit submissions for the committee to look at: http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/committ...sing/index.htm

go there then hit upload submission online, make account ( secure website, padlock up top - check to make sure. ) then scroll down to Inquiry and look for the gambling one.

Not sure how much if anything they'll consider but it's probably in the whole communitys interests if people don't send rambling nonsense such as OMG DONT BAN ONLINE POKER , if the committee is going to look at Online Poker, the type of things I think that would help our cause include:

Writing about how it would affect your life if online poker was taken away, would you lose your income, how would it affect your family/way of life?
Highlighting that online poker is extremely different from online casinos, there's a huge skill edge in poker and I think there's a huge misconception surrounding this in australia. Here are some links to form arguments around on skill vs luck in poker
http://www.mnpokermag.com/2011/05/09...n-poker-again/
http://www.freakonomics.com/2007/05/...ill-vs-chance/
http://www.pokerlistings.com/skill-vs-luck-get-it-right

All 3 of those links will help immensely if you're looking to form an argument on the luck component of poker, I think if we're going to keep online poker somewhat legal in that we're able to play it at all, I think a key point will be distancing poker away from online casinos, skill vs luck concept does this nicely. We need the committee to view online poker as a game that skill will win in the long run - not something like the pokies where someone has an unfair edge.

this website only lists Bills that have been given to the lower house or are at some stage through the process or are Acts now.

the Bill in discussion normally would be written as an exposure draft, given to industry interest groups and have submissions provided on the aspects of the Bill. The legislative committee would then take these comments assess them, make relevant changes for things they felt were worth implementing or editing from those submissions.

Then the bill will be put to parliment and we will get it then. your rights to comment have not extinguished but all comments should then be sent to your local representative.

once this process happens it will go through pretty quickly i imagine, no poli will stand in the way of protecting the innocent addicted gambler.

The legislation idea announced around internet gaming and gambling was making all bets void if made via a credit card facility.

I would think that this would be as unenforcable as what we currently have. as commented above.

to be honest, im not worrying that much.

australia has a history of regulation rather than complete banning. think sports betting.

the communications minister, stephen conroy, has already come out and said that it is extremely hard for them to enforce laws on offshore sites, because they dont have juristiction. http://www.news.com.au/technology/au...-1226059970964


there are plenty of sports books that you can bet on in australia that are off shore and haven't been licenced, and little action is taken against these sites even though they are clearly breaking the law. on the contrary, bwin have a sports betting licence in australia, and i believe part of that licencing requirement was to suspend poker to australian customers.

they have banned online casinos in australia, and some poker sites that have casino's attached (like 888) comply with this and ban the casino part, but still offer poker. in the 888 client, they offer slots, roulette and blackjack as well as poker. up until recently all of the casino games were banned except blackjack, and just checking right now, i can't log into BJ either.

as long as poker is ruled a skillful form of gambling (and i believe there has been at least once ruling on this in an australian court), i think the trend will be for regulation and licencing rather than banning.

here is a link to the article about skill vs luck http://www.pokernetwork.com/news/Aus...court-case.htm

here is a quote "In findings published Tuesday 15th July 2008 Magistrate Koula Kossiavelos accepted the evidence of Dr Bob Crossman who contended that Poker is a game of “significantly more skill than chance"



having said all of that, i am not an expert by any stretch of the imagination. my advice would be to play on reputable sites that are either very large sites like stars, or sites that are regulated elsewhere in the world, like 888 and party.

Those ****ing ******s talking to the press about the tax issue deserve to be taken out to the field and shot through the back of the head. Can't believe their stupidity.

This is what I'm worried about also, are we able to get clarification on this?

Some have said that it's only illegal for Australian Companies to provide poker services to other Aussies, however wikipedia states this is not the case:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactive_Gambling_Act

Seeing as though I've just forked out a bit for coaching etc, plus dedicated thousands of hours to learning/playing this game (like many others here I'd imagine); I'd be very keen to get proper clarification on this.