Interactive Gambling Act
The Interactive Gambling Act (IGA) was passed in June 2001 by the
Australian Government with the purpose of protecting the Australian public from
the detrimental affects of online gambling.
The Law
The Interactive Gambling Act (2001) was passed by the Australian Commonwealth Parliament on June 28, 2001. The bill was passed by the government in order to prevent detrimental affects of online gambling upon the Australian population.
The IGA is targeted at online gambling operators and makes it an offense for them to offer ‘real money’ online interactive gambling to residents of Australia. It also makes it illegal for online gambling operators to advertise ‘real money’ interactive gambling services (such as online poker and casino) to Australian citizens.
The Offense
- The law applies to all interactive gambling operators whether they are Australian or foreign owned or whether they are based in Australia or offshore.
- The offense of offering Interactive Gambling Services to Australian residents carries a maximum fine of $220,000 per day for individuals within an Interactive Gambling operation or $1.1 million per day for the actual company.
- The responsibility of upholding the IGA is the responsibility of individual gambling operators. The average Australian citizen cannot be punished for signing up and gambling online.
Reasonable Diligence
An offense will not be deemed to have been committed if the online gambling operator could not, with due diligence, have know that they were offering their services to residents of Australia. The IGA defines 'reasonable diligence' in the following ways:
- Whether the operator informed potential customers about the law preventing operators offering Interactive Gambling services to Australian residents.
- Whether customer's contracts with the online gambling operators stated that the customer could not use the service whilst physically present in Australia
- Whether the customer had to provide personal details such as address and whether the customers details suggested whether they were a resident of Australia
Online Wagering
There is some leniency in the Interactive Gambling Act that mean not all online gambling was prohibited. For example sports betting through licensed operators is still legal as long as the betting occurs prior to the sporting event starting – this way the individual is not gambling ‘interactively'. Online Lotteries are also legal according to the Act, as long as they are not the 'instant-win' style scratch cards.
Advertising
The IGA made it an offense to advertise an interactive gambling service or product - the advertising ban extended across all forms of media (from electronic to print.
Complaints
The IGA has a formal complaints process that is managed by the Australian Broadcasting Authority in which people can register any concerns regarding the advertising of Interactive gambling products.
