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Gambling in a number of different forms has become an insanely popular pastime for Australians with online poker being one of the leading options. Thanks to the rather liberal laws pertaining to the online poker and online gambling industry, the activities have been able to thrive. In fact, it would be safe to say that the online poker boom in the country is now in full swing.

Here is a list of the best legal online poker sites in Australia for November 2020:

Contents

4 The Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill
5 Finding the Best Legal Poker Sites in Australia

Ignition Poker

Most Reliable

4.9/5

Generous Welcome Bonus
Huge Playerbase
Amazing Platform Software

Welcome Bonus:200% up to $1000

Mobile Friendly Platform
Large New Player Bonus
Great User Interface

However, as good as things have gotten for the industry, the gambling operators as well as the poker players, this was not always the case. Fortunately, the online poker operators and other stakeholders in the gaming industry were able to find workarounds and now Aussie players have access to a number of legal online poker sites including:

Ignition Casino Poker Room
BetOnline.AG
888poker
Bet365
William Hill Poker
Bodog
Americas Cardroom

The existence of all these outstanding legal online poker sites in Australia is enough proof that online poker is truly coming back to the land down under. As such, the country’s residents can indulge in online poker action at whichever of the listed sites without worrying about being prosecuted. Moreover, Australians are even allowed to play on poker sites that are located in other jurisdictions and they are able to perform financial transactions without any problems. That said, it may be a little surprising for some people that there are questions regarding the legality of the activity. Well, there is a good reason for that, and it starts with the Interactive Gambling Act (IGA).

What Is the Interactive Gaming Act?

Dating all the way back to 2001, the Interactive Gambling Act (IGA) was aimed at preventing online gambling operators in Australia from accepting bets from Aussie players as well as ensuring that both the local and international or foreign gambling operators were not able to advertise their services in the country. The IGA was officially passed in June of 2001 by the Australian Commonwealth Parliament before going forward to receive assent in July of the same year.

Unsurprisingly, this piece of legislation turned out to be ineffective and therefore offshore online gambling operators were still able to exploit a number of loopholes that allowed them to keep serving Aussie gamblers. This went on until, in 2017, when the Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill was passed – the amendment effectively firmed up the language of the original 2001 law thus preventing the offshore gaming providers from continuing to offer their services to Australians.

The Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill

Proposed by the country’s Minister for Human Services in 2016, the amendment bill seeks to close all the loopholes in the Interactive Gambling Act of 2001. The amendment brought a plethora of changes to the gaming market in Australia after it was passed in 2017 and key among them was the ban on online poker and casino games or sites that had not been licensed by the country’s government.

Did It Work?

Well, now more than ever, the legality of online poker in the country remains in a state of flux following the passage of the Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill – this is despite the fact that the amendment was meant to clear up the ambiguity and vagueness that punched loopholes in the 2001 Interactive Gambling Act. Now, while it is possible that the state and territorial governments, which are responsible for the gambling regulations, achieved their goals to prohibit the provision and advertisement of real money interactive gambling services to the country’s citizens, it did consider some other implications.

As such, for Australians, accessing and using online poker sites is not illegal. In other words, it is perfectly legal for Aussie poker enthusiasts to play at foreign-based online poker sites without any fear of the government trying to stop them. Instead, the online poker operators are the ones that are targeted by the Australian governments and they risk being slapped with fines of over $1 million if their violations of the gambling law are ascertained to be severe enough.

On the same note, one of the supposed aims of the Interactive Gambling Act was the protection of Australian residents from the potentially harmful effects of online gambling. As mentioned above, there is no clause in the bill that outlaws the access and use of gambling services from online poker sites and casino. Technically, this implies that participating in online gambling is completely legal in Australia – it is only the provision and advertisement of such services that is frowned upon. To make things even more complicated is the fact that there are literally hundreds or even thousands of offshore online poker operators that gladly cater to Australian players.

More Implications

Naturally, restricting the players from playing online poker is most likely to drive the gambling activity underground as we have seen in a number of countries were gamblers are not allowed to play. It goes without saying that this is definitely neither a perfect nor an ideal situation especially for the online poker players simply because their choices of sites are quite limited. Still, the consolation is that, compared to several other jurisdictions all around the world, Aussie online poker players have access to a decent selection of online poker rooms to play at. There may be a few shortcomings with regards to the number of games that are available since some big online poker titles are missing, but most gamers have been able to survive without them.

All things considered, it will not be surprising at all if the country decides to regulate online poker in the near future. By doing so, the players will be able to access more and even better gambling sites while the government will be able to benefit from increased tax revenue from the online poker sites. Furthermore, the regulatory authorities, as well as the state and territorial governments, will have much more control over the activity.

As it stands, there has not been any substantial legislative move towards a future with regulated online poker. According to a parliamentary report from October 2017, if that was to be considered, any steps taken towards such a future should be pursued cautiously and strong measures must be included to protect all the c

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