Lottery Betting Ban Confirmed by Australian Government

Despite the big amount of protests and objections, the government of Australia has confirmed what was in the making for some time now – the ban on online lottery betting that allows punters to play international lotteries. This was officially ratified by the Parliament of Australia on June 28th.

The ban was instated by the government due to the initiative by country-wide pubs, clubs and newsagents that sell lottery tickets who began losing money due to the international lottery sites. The blacklisting of these sites will be taking place from January 1st 2019.

This will severely affect companies such as Lottoland who was fighting this ban with a fierce campaign and trying to prove that their operations do not harm the selling of traditional lottery tickets in Australia. The decision to confirm the ban of international online lottery has been met with huge disappointment and resentment by the company, but they have issued a lengthy statement saying that Lottoland will find a way to continue their operations in Australia, because they have a lot of ed players there.

Their statement, signed by CEO Luke Brill, reads: “As you would expect, Lottoland Australia is well advanced in looking at other ways we can continue to deliver choice to the 700,000 Australians who have ed with us over the past two years. “It is a great pity that the Senate did not give due consideration of the unintended consequences the new laws will have – not just on our customers, but on competition and innovation.”

“As we have said from the very beginning, the legislation is bad news for Australian newsagents, too, which will now be at the mercy of a huge, money-hungry monopoly in the form of Tatts Group, now owned by Tabcorp. But this decision does not mean the end of Lottoland Australia – far from it. We are here to stay, and will continue to innovate and adapt so that we can continue to provide our customers with the type of exciting and innovative products they have come to expect from us over the past two years. Our lottery betting products will continue to be available for at least another six months, as stipulated in the legislation.”

In quite a different tone, Adam Joy – chief executive of Australian Lottery and Newsagents Association, who was one of the main men behind the online lottery banning campaign, praised this move by the government saying that this will protect Australian customers from “synthetic lotteries” as the loophole that lotto betting sites have been operating out of will be closed. Australian Communications Minister, Mitch Fifield, added: “This legislation will also protect more than 4000 small businesses including newsagents, pharmacies and community clubs and pubs across the country who operate long-standing, recreational betting services.”

Source:

“Australian parliament approves lottery betting ban”, igamingbusiness.com, June 29, 2018