Aussie anti-online gambling crusader climbs on the ‘in-play’ bandwagon

Australia’s perennial anti-online gambling crusader Sen. Nick Xenophon was quick to take advantage of Social Services Minister Scott Morrison’s call for a fresh review of the Interactive Gambling Act of 2001 (see previous reports), quickly scoring several media interviews on the topic Wednesday.

He urged the federal government to ban gambling advertising during live sport broadcasts and restrict a controversial online betting ‘in-play’ loophole as part of the review, and claimed that he is currently drafting legislation to be introduced next month which will include provisions to ban live sports gambling ads, restrict in-play betting and end both credit gambling and incentives to punters currently offered by bookmakers.

Xenophon wants to go further than that, however, and also raised the possibility of interference in financial transactions between punters and illegal online gambling operators, saying that A$1 billion is lost on illegal sports betting and casino websites annually.

In related news, statistics from industry researcher H2 Gambling Capital shows that Australians are the developed world’s biggest gamblers with a per capita average annual spend of A$1,279…that’s somewhat lower than the figure in government research estimates from the Productivity Commission in 2010, which set the figure at A$1,500.

That review found there was an overall net benefit (through taxes and entertainment) to the economy from gambling of between $3.7 billion and $11.1 billion a year.

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