The Federal Government will pursue a total ban on Internet gambling, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said in a radio interview today, despite opposition from most States and Territories.
The Prime Minister's comments follow an unsuccessful attempt to implement a one-year moratorium on new online gambling licences. The proposal was rejected yesterday by States and Territories with the exception of New South Wales and Western Australia.
Prohibition of online gambling in Australia will meet significant resistance from established casinos, according to Greg Farrell, Managing Director of casino operator The Federal Group and member of the Australian Casino Association.
The Federal Group operates the Wrest Point and Country Club casinos in Tasmania and plans to introduce online versions of the casinos in the next few weeks -- a combined project worth -tens of millions of dollars", according to Farrell.
-If the government totally banned online gaming we would have a problem. We've made a significant investment. It would raise all kinds of legal issues and we would definitely be seeking compensation," Farrell said.
At the moment -there's only one regulated Australian casino site on the Net and that is Lasseters Online. We expect to see ourselves and possibly one or two more sites join it in the next year," Farrell said.
Licences to operate casinos and other gambling venues such as sports betting and lotteries are state-controlled.
-A moratorium on new licences would be no problem for us -- we're not for it, but we already have a licence. In our case (the licence to operate online) didn't cost us anything, it's an extension of our existing licences in the state. An operator can get a gaming licence in Tasmania from about $300,000 per year," Farrell said.
-We can't see what the moratorium would achieve," other than to -reduce the ability for Australian companies to enter the industry."
Farrell said the industry believed Howard's view is -misinformed" as there has been a -lot of work done on regulatory control," within the industry. He warned that if there is a ban, any -void" will be filled by overseas operators.
-Prohibition seems to be ridiculous," he said.
