Prohibiting online pokies is futile

Banning (illegal) online pokies seem to be futile, since the ban on these type of games can’t be executed properly. Online pokermachines are banned since the early 2000’s. However, research shows that the ban is futile and that many people play online pokermachines anyway. Even though this ban seems to be a failure, it gets little to no media attention.

Online there can be found thousands of online casinos where Australian player can sign-up and deposit money to have a little wager on one of the dozen online pokermachines. And these prohibited online pokies are massively popular by Australian gamblers.

A report from Gambling Research Australia (GRA) shows that in 2019, more than 47% of the Australians used to gamble online on an illegal website. On these websites they played online pokies, online scratch tickets, Poker, Bingo, casino games such as roulette and Blackjack and lootboxes from online video games.

However, only one third of the gamblers that played on the aforementioned offshore websites knew that they were playing on illegal online casino websites. 30% of the gamblers took the time to research whether the website holds an Australian gambling license or not.

Also for gamblers who love to place bets on sports, horse racing and such, on third of these gamblers placed their bets on offshore website who don’t own an Australian online gambling license. Again, some of these gamblers don’t even know that these are illegal. However, some of the deliberately play at these casinos due to a couple of reasons. They mostly pay better odds, which makes the profit bigger then when playing at a licensed casino. Next to that, these site offer more gambling options such as in-play betting.

All these factors making the online pokermachine ban futile, mostly because they Australian government is not doing anything about it.