The federal government is calling for submissions to examine ways of delivering a workable regulatory regime governing interactive gambling, including controls on financial transactions related to illegal services.

The government made the call in a background paper released as part of a 12-month review of the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 (IGA), which deals with a range of issues associated with interactive gambling.

These issues include comment on the government's ability to regulate financial transactions associated with the provision of interactive gambling services, the social and commercial impacts of interactive gambling and technological trends and capabilities that either promote or assist in the regulation of interactive gambling.

The paper, released under the auspices of the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, says consultations undertaken by the National Office of the Information Economy since September last year "have indicated that the government's ability to render agreements that provide for the payment of money for the supply of illegal interactive gambling services unenforceable is uncertain.

"There are a number of legal and practical considerations that may limit the capacity to regulate financial transactions associated with interactive services or otherwise make them unfeasible".

The document does, however, explore ways in which these legislative mechanisms may work, including blocking credit card transactions related to illegal gambling sites, or rendering debts incurred by Australians to illegal gambling services unenforceable.

Because the latter approach may lead to the debt burden being placed squarely on the shoulders of financial institutions, the government is seeking help in the form of submissions.

Other points the review will address include new technological developments "....relevant to the regulation of interactive gambling services or capable of assisting in the management of problem gambling".

Technologies of interest are both those that work for and against the Act "...such as filtering technologies, and conversely those used either to promote interactive gambling or to undermine the offence provisions and complaints scheme of the IGA".

The IGA was enacted after a 12-month moratorium designed to allow the government time to investigate the social and commercial impact of interactive gambling services effectively strangled attempts by Australian companies to offer online gambling services.

The government said it had a willingness to "consider current exemptions from the IGA for certain types of interactive gambling services", such as telephone betting, as well as examining the operation of the act, the social and commercial impact of online gambling as well as growth in the online gaming industry.

The original legislation was introduced largely because "...the Government found that the availability of gambling services on the Internet represents a 'quantum leap' in the accessibility of gambling, and has the potential to exacerbate problem gambling."

Under the IGA it is illegal to offer online gambling services to persons within Australia, regardless of where that service is located. Current penalties for breaching the act are $220,000 per day for individuals and AU$1.1 million for corporations.

The Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Senator Richard Alston, is required to review the legislation prior to the 1 July this year, in accordance with the requirements of the original IGA. Interested parties have until close of business 22 April 2003 to lodge submissions.

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