Australian Online Poker News

According to players and sources, the Winning Poker Network has exited the Australian online poker market. It was a move that came without much warning for players but affects those with accounts at Americas Cardroom, Black Chip Poker, True Poker, and Ya Poker. Australian Online Poker Officially Banned Down Under Bad news for Australians though I guess they have know it was coming. 888 Poker pulled out a while back and PokerStars will mostly likely leave. Top Australian Real Money Poker Sites. If you're looking to play online poker we have some good news for you. There are a great number of real money online poker sites with AUD for Aussie players to choose from. The choice is often tough because you need to pick a quality real money site you can trust.

Australia's online poker players have seemingly lost another outlet for playing their game with the news that the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has ordered the blocking of the large grey-market offering Ignition Casino. The ACMA on Monday issued the blocking order to the country's internet service providers (ISPs), specifying Ignition Casino and eight other online gambling sites that have continued to accept Aussie customers following that country's official ban in 2017 on all forms of online gambling other than sports betting.

It's the second time that the ACMA has issued such a blocking order. Last year, the ACMA ordered the blocking of another Aussie-facing operation, Emu Casino, which included multiple brands and domains. Emu Casino has since exited the Aussie online sphere while reaching a workaround deal with Aussie authorities that allows customers to retrieve their frozen Emu balances through separate means. The ACMA has ordered the blocking based on updates made to both gambling and telecommunications laws in Australia.

In addition to Ignition Casino, the ACMA also ordered ISPs to block these sites: Roo Casino, GW Casino, Wager Beat, Joe Fortune, Casino Dingo, AU Slots, Top Bet, and XBet. As is plainly evident, some of these sites specifically targeted Aussie gamblers despite the country's ban on such services, while others may simply have failed to proactively block Australian players.

'More than 79 complaints have been submitted to the ACMA about these services, which are available in Australia,' the ACMA declared in a statement. 'ACMA investigations found these services to be operating in breach of the Interactive Gambling Act 2001.'

The regulator also noted that 'Website blocking is one of a range of enforcement and disruption options the ACMA uses to protect Australians against illegal gambling services. More than 90 illegal companies have pulled out of the Australian market since 2017 when the ACMA started enforcing new illegal offshore gambling rules.'

Ignition Casino is a spinoff of the Bodog/Bovada brand family. Ignition Casino was created in August of 2016 through the sale of Bovada Poker's US customer base to Lynton Limited, an unknown entity with little previous track record. Despite its 'casino' name, Ignition was created as a poker-first offering, and it remains operating as a skin of sorts on Bodog/Bovada's software, and it appears to have accepted players from at least a few other countries as well, as evidenced by the current situation in Australia. The site is officially regulated by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC), based just outside Montreal, Canada.

The loss of a prominent and stable grey-market offering (given that no formal regulatory mechanism is even being considered) is likely to drive Australia's devoted online players even farther underground in the virtual sense. One likely result should be an even greater shift to the 'club'-based form of online poker generally available through agents and via smartphone apps. Such apps and games first surfaced in Pacific Rim countries ranging from China to Australia, and despite their high risks, they've become an option of last resort for certain categories of online players. No formal regulatory plans are on the country's legislative horizon.

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Australia's pending approval of amendments to its existing online-gambling laws that would effectively outlaw all such activity has drawn a last-ditch effort from the country's online-poker players, in the form of an online petition its backers, the Australian Online Poker Alliance, plan to submit to Australia's Parliament in the near future.

While the effort to obtain an online-poker carveout in Australia's proposed (and likely to be approved) Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill 2016 appears earnest and sincere, it's also likely to be an instance of too little, too late for the country's online players. The second-largest international site previously serving the country, 888Poker, recently withdrew its services, and worldwide market leader PokerStars plans a similar exit at well.

It's also true that online poker is being caught up in the wash, or, as some claim, the pending ban is an unintended consequence of the amendments' primary thrust, to limit offshore sports books serving the Aussie market, and to tighten several other rules related to that pastime. However, poker is viewed with a slanted eye by many of the country's politicians, and the overreaching consequences of the bill appear no accident at all. Parliament member Alan Tudge, of the ruling Liberal-National party, introduced the amendments last November in his role as Federal Human Services Minister. Nanny-state law or not, these new online-gambling amendments were deeply negotiated among many agencies and Parliament members before being introduced.

It can't hurt to try a petition, the creators of the Australian Online Poker Alliance might reason, even if it's not likely to help at this late date. The group has created an online presence here (that's the group's logo or preferred image or whatever at right), and there's also linkage to the lengthy 2,300-word petition, which begins as follows.

Online Poker is a hobby enjoyed by many thousands of Australians on a weekly basis. Recently, the Federal Government introduced the ‘Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill (2016)' to the parliament. This is an important piece of legislation which is looking to protect problem gamblers. It is looking to offer protections by banning unlicensed offshore operators and also by clearly clarifying and defining the laws around ‘in play' betting.

This is a good initiative and something that is broadly supported by the Australian Poker Community.

However, as the Bill is currently written it will spell the end of online poker in Australia. The overwhelming majority of online poker operators utilised by Australians are run by offshore companies. There are no licensed Australian operators. The difference is, these are not small cowboy operations set up externally to exploit Australian laws. These are large publically [sic] listed companies listed on large scale economic centres such as the London Stock Exchange. …

And on from there, with more information on such concerns as why Australians should have the freedom to play online from their own homes, and an assertion — generally backed up by several recent studies — that online poker is less addictive than other gambling forms. There's also a call for Australia's government to study and emulate other international jurisdictions that have successfully licensed online poker, such as the United Kingdom.

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Australia's pending approval of amendments to its existing online-gambling laws that would effectively outlaw all such activity has drawn a last-ditch effort from the country's online-poker players, in the form of an online petition its backers, the Australian Online Poker Alliance, plan to submit to Australia's Parliament in the near future.

While the effort to obtain an online-poker carveout in Australia's proposed (and likely to be approved) Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill 2016 appears earnest and sincere, it's also likely to be an instance of too little, too late for the country's online players. The second-largest international site previously serving the country, 888Poker, recently withdrew its services, and worldwide market leader PokerStars plans a similar exit at well.

It's also true that online poker is being caught up in the wash, or, as some claim, the pending ban is an unintended consequence of the amendments' primary thrust, to limit offshore sports books serving the Aussie market, and to tighten several other rules related to that pastime. However, poker is viewed with a slanted eye by many of the country's politicians, and the overreaching consequences of the bill appear no accident at all. Parliament member Alan Tudge, of the ruling Liberal-National party, introduced the amendments last November in his role as Federal Human Services Minister. Nanny-state law or not, these new online-gambling amendments were deeply negotiated among many agencies and Parliament members before being introduced.

It can't hurt to try a petition, the creators of the Australian Online Poker Alliance might reason, even if it's not likely to help at this late date. The group has created an online presence here (that's the group's logo or preferred image or whatever at right), and there's also linkage to the lengthy 2,300-word petition, which begins as follows.

Online Poker is a hobby enjoyed by many thousands of Australians on a weekly basis. Recently, the Federal Government introduced the ‘Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill (2016)' to the parliament. This is an important piece of legislation which is looking to protect problem gamblers. It is looking to offer protections by banning unlicensed offshore operators and also by clearly clarifying and defining the laws around ‘in play' betting.

This is a good initiative and something that is broadly supported by the Australian Poker Community.

However, as the Bill is currently written it will spell the end of online poker in Australia. The overwhelming majority of online poker operators utilised by Australians are run by offshore companies. There are no licensed Australian operators. The difference is, these are not small cowboy operations set up externally to exploit Australian laws. These are large publically [sic] listed companies listed on large scale economic centres such as the London Stock Exchange. …

And on from there, with more information on such concerns as why Australians should have the freedom to play online from their own homes, and an assertion — generally backed up by several recent studies — that online poker is less addictive than other gambling forms. There's also a call for Australia's government to study and emulate other international jurisdictions that have successfully licensed online poker, such as the United Kingdom.

To date, the petition has received nearly 1,700 verified signers from its current listing at survey-generation site change.org. The petition seeks at least 2,500 such signers but likely needs an order of magnitude more to generate anything more than a sniff from Parliament members, if indeed it reaches the threshold for submission.

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Australian Online Poker News Updates

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SPORTS BETTING GUIDE

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