The Senate of the Australian government has passed amendments to gambling laws to close loopholes and ban online poker and in-play sports betting.
Despite the vote, opinion on the Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill 2016 is still largely divided, as Liberal Democrats senator David Leyonhjelm told The Huffington Post Australia.
“It's stupid,” he said.”If you want to play poker, there are lots of opportunities in Australia, at casinos and tournaments. It’s not as if there isn't a great deal of poker playing already, but they're just stopping it online. The whole world is online now."
Leyonhjelm said that the online poker community in Australia had been utilising a loophole and claimed that the changes are unnecessary and ineffective.
The in-play sports betting loophole enabled bookmakers to offer “click to call” features on websites and apps, a technique now outlawed.
Leyonhjelm said the in-play ban effectively created a legal blindspot, promoting a black market and meaning that any potential match-fixing activities would be harder to track.
Source: Huffington Post Australia
