The Australian government wants to stop online casinos from moving off-shore and side-stepping its Net gambling restrictions.
The department of Communications, Information technology and the Arts has confirmed that it will seek ways to stop gambling sites circumventing the legislation.
"Even if [an online casino] has a server off-shore they are still operating in Australia," a spokesman for Senator Richard Alston, minister for DCITA, told ZDNet Australia.
The federal government presented its bill on a 12-month halt on all new Internet gambling licences to Parliament yesterday.
"The government can't actually prevent Australian operators from setting up [entirely new companies] offshore," Jamie Nettleton, a partner at Sydney law firm Coudert Brothers, told ZDNet Australia. However, an Australian company is one that operates here, is headquartered here, or has an agent here, which means those Net gambling sites already established locally won't escape the legislation just by moving servers overseas.
"[The bill is] certainly intended to catch parties already conducting business in that way," Nettleton said. However, "there may be ways around [the bill] but it is too early to tell," he added.
The government's proposed legislation will prevent new online gambling licences being issued for a 12-month period and will be backdated to May 19. In the interim, the government " will be getting down to the nitty gritty of implementing a [complete] ban" on interactive gambling, a spokesperson for Senator Alston said.
"We're not allowing new entrants into the market whilst the review is being conducted," the spokesperson said.
Whilst the government's moratorium hopes to temporarily relieve its worries over interactive gambling, Nettleton believes the bill will be ineffective.
"The government's primary objective is to try to minimalise problem gambling among Australians," Nettleton said. "However, the bill is only addressing interactive gambling being provided by Australian companies after May 19, 2000," he added and doesn't take into account online casinos set up before this deadline and overseas sites that are completely beyond the control of the federal government.
The bill was referred to a Senate Committee and will be debated in Parliament at the beginning of September.
