How ridiculous is a ban on online poker and casinos in a country where the law is openly flaunted, play-for-fun (.net) sites are widely promoted and companies like PokerStars have offices set up there?
Australia upholds online gaming ban
This is the dilemma in Australia where companies such as Betfair, Centrebet and Sportingbet offer licensed and regulated poker and casino services to punters outside Australia, but by law, can't do so to Australian residents. Yet, the likes of Party Poker and PokerStars can openly advertisely their wares around the nation by sponsoring events and TV coverage through their 'free' sites. Only the extremely daft amongt us, namely Federal Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, believes that these companies do not generate any real money business via this advertising. Australia is one of the biggest markets for foreign poker firms, so all the profits from these companies goes offshore and stays there.
This is the same daft politician who is hellbent on filtering Australian internet services to a level only matched by communist China. Nice idea to attempt block the evils of the world from the public, but the reality is the sites that do provide the biggest dangers don't advertise themselves and can switch URLs quickly. So the net result for Aussies is a much-slower broadband speed and many legitimate businesses will be filtered out, because the government won't publish the list, or the criteria behind it, but like any government department, will stuff it up and include innocent sites in their net.
And meanwhile, the government helps out their mates in the casinos who pay ridiculous amounts of tax so the poorly-run states, who sold off most of their assets long ago, aren't stone broke. Nothing to do with preventing problem gambling as everyone ignores the ban anyway, it's about incompetent politicians helping out their casino-owning mates.
Australia upholds online gaming ban
This is the dilemma in Australia where companies such as Betfair, Centrebet and Sportingbet offer licensed and regulated poker and casino services to punters outside Australia, but by law, can't do so to Australian residents. Yet, the likes of Party Poker and PokerStars can openly advertisely their wares around the nation by sponsoring events and TV coverage through their 'free' sites. Only the extremely daft amongt us, namely Federal Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, believes that these companies do not generate any real money business via this advertising. Australia is one of the biggest markets for foreign poker firms, so all the profits from these companies goes offshore and stays there.
This is the same daft politician who is hellbent on filtering Australian internet services to a level only matched by communist China. Nice idea to attempt block the evils of the world from the public, but the reality is the sites that do provide the biggest dangers don't advertise themselves and can switch URLs quickly. So the net result for Aussies is a much-slower broadband speed and many legitimate businesses will be filtered out, because the government won't publish the list, or the criteria behind it, but like any government department, will stuff it up and include innocent sites in their net.
And meanwhile, the government helps out their mates in the casinos who pay ridiculous amounts of tax so the poorly-run states, who sold off most of their assets long ago, aren't stone broke. Nothing to do with preventing problem gambling as everyone ignores the ban anyway, it's about incompetent politicians helping out their casino-owning mates.
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