Australia Looks at Slots Legalization

From the looks of it, Australia will soon be the next government to succumb to the wile ways of online gambling. New South Wales to be exact, is getting a lot of pressure to implement some form of taxation and regulation for the new online slots and gambling industry, especially since it has been recently a huge form of competition for the longstanding sportsbetting and lottery industries.

Because of the competition, the old guard is steadily losing money, and therefore the government is currently losing money as well, since there is no system in place to tax and benefit from the huge use of online slots either. It is estimated that New South Wales has actually lost a gross amount of $14 million a year to online slots, due to the fact that people have replaced sportsbetting with online gambling instead.

This is simply another example of a growing trend across the globe, as more and more people are choosing to spend their money and time online, instead of schlepping to land casinos, or going to the racetrack to place their bets. In addition, governments everywhere are having to come to a crossroads of how they will be handling this new “problem”, and whether their approach will be that of an accepting one, or a more resistant, conservative Prohibition style. As should be learned from history, staunch opposition to anything always results in organized crime and a lessening of safety standards and customer advocacy, whereas accepting the situation and regulating a behavior eliminates the possibility of illicit activity. Online slots is here to stay, and the world needs to get on board one way or another.

Back to November 2008 Archive.