The Federal Government yesterday released another announcement that it is to impose a 12-month moratorium on new online gambling licenses, and as far as one spokesperson for the Australian Capital Territory's Attorney General is concerned, it's just another case of sabre-rattling.
"It's almost embarrassing how many times they've said that they are going to do this. They are not making any contribution or showing us the legislation," Vicki Dunne, advisor to the ACT Attorney General Gary Humphries, told ZDNet Australia.
The legislation is slated to be released during the Spring session this year, September to December, and will affect all online gambling service providers issued with a license to operate after 19 May 2000.
Furthermore, the release stated that it will not matter if the online gambling operation deals solely with international patrons or not, the Australian legislation will hold authority over all trading.
This would mean that if online gambling provider Lasseters had received a license after the cut off date, the company, which targets only international patrons, would not be able to trade without inflicting heavy fines upon themselves.
The statement claims fines will be enforced by the Australian Federal Police and could be anywhere up to AU$1.1million a day.
So when, and if, the legislation comes into effect, Lasseters, GoCorp and ecorp will be the only online gambling providers legally operating in Australia -- with ecorp scraping in by just four days before the cut off date.
ZDNet Australia contacted the Australian Federal Police regarding the announcement, however they were unaware of any changes to the legislation and said in terms of monitoring compliance and funding to support investigations, discussions were taking place with the government.
According to GoCorp CEO, Paul Appelby there is nothing new in the announcement the government has made, "they're just saying it a bit differently this time."
"I haven't seen the legislation yet but from reading the various releases our view is that our business won't be impacted negatively if it goes ahead," Appelby said.
Dunne explained to ZDNet Australia that since December the government has been talking about placing a 12-month morotorium on the online gambling industry to enable a full investigation into the possibility of a permanent ban, but nothing has taken place yet. "It's just another example of the governments empty posturing."
"The federal government hasn't made one contribution to change player protection so far," Dunne said.
"The Gambling and Racing Commission is saying that online gambling is here, it's not going away. It needs constant monitoring of the legislation but we can't turn our back on it."
"This announcement is only a threat to people who are sitting there getting ready to flick the switch to go live. It's intended to scare people away," Dunne said.
