Jul 12, 2004: Communications Minister Daryl Williams today announced the Government had decided against regulating betting exchanges, following a review of Interactive Gambling Act 2001. Foreign online betting exchanges will be able to seek licences to operate in Australia after Federal cabinet decided not to amend the Interactive Gambling Act to ban them.
Today's decision does not prevent the States and Territories from acting on licensing issues falling within their own jurisdictions relating to interactive wagering and betting exchanges.
The licensing and regulation of gambling services has traditionally been a matter for the States and Territories.
As part of a review of the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 (IGA) - which was established to prevent the escalation of problem gambling resulting from new interactive gambling services - the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts (DCITA) examined a wide range of issues including the impact of betting exchanges.
Also see links belo, including the Sept 9, 2004 Report of the review of the Interactive Gambling Act 2001.

May 7, 2004: Following the move by the US government to ban credit card usage on online casinos, the Australian government is planning to take similar actions. A proposal to enforce the ban on foreign online gambling sites by blocking credit-card transactions is being considered by the Federal Government as part of a review of the Interactive Gambling Act. ‘Our much-anticipated review would be completed shortly,’ said a spokeswoman for Communications Minister Daryl Williams.
The move however, has met with opposition from the Australian Bankers’ Association (ABA), which has rejected the proposal to block Australian punters from using credit cards at online casinos. Bankers argue that, customers should be allowed to spend their money how they choose and banks should not be forced to become moral arbiters. ‘We don’t think the payment system should be used to block transactions, because if it’s used in one area it could be used in others. If the Government decides to block a gambling transaction it could be used to block other transactions. We don’t think banks should be required to pay the cost of the online gambling problem,’ said an official spokesperson for the ABA.
Visa and MasterCard, which facilitate the online transactions, are letting the banks settle the issue for now. ‘At present, you will either under-block or over-block. If you want to be totally accurate, work needs to be done. Currently, all gambling providers are identified in the same manner, whether they be a casino or sports gambling,’ said regulatory affairs director Albert Naffah of MasterCard.

Apr 27, 2004: Public submissions for a review of the Interactive Gambling Act ended April 22 last year with TAB Limited and other institutions sending out their suggestions for change.
The minister's office said the review is being finalised and will be released to the public "shortly."

Apr 9, 2004: Foreign online bookmakers are operating here due to a loophole in federal internet gaming laws. The foreign betting agencies, such as British wagering giant Betfair, are allowed to offer bets on local sports to Australian punters but are not subject to any local regulatory checks.
State and territory gaming ministers have lobbied the Federal Government to close the loophole because no portion of money wagered overseas is directed back into the local racing industry as occurs with bets placed through local companies, such as TAB Ltd and Tabcorp.
Federal Communications Minister Daryl Williams recently received a review of the Interactive Gaming Act but has failed to provide an assurance the Government will close the loophole.
Betting exchanges have the attraction over local online betting service providers is a greater range of betting options, such as the ability to bet on the outcome of each ball of a cricket match.
For the first one day international cricket final between Australia and India, Betfair held bets totalling $670,000 compared to $120,000 held by the TAB. But for the second one day international cricket final Australians had placed $5.4 million in bets with Betfair, and only $123,000 with TAB. Last month state and territory gaming ministers called on the Federal Government to impose a total ban on the offering of betting exchange services to Australians through offshore bookmakers.
A spokeswoman for Mr Williams said the Government was considering a review of the act. "That includes a broad range of issues related to the legislative framework for interactive gaming services," she said.

Apr 5, 2004: The New South Wales Government has stepped up its campaign to ban Internet betting, saying it is costing the racing industry around A$10 million a year. State Gaming and Racing Minister, Grant McBride, says the Federal Government should finalise a year-long inquiry into the issue and ban betting exchanges. Betting exchanges are seen as a threat to the industry because they allow punters to bet that a horse will lose a race - which Mr McBride says encourages "dodgy practices."

Mar 12, 2004: The federal Government has vowed to stop expansion of internet betting -- if it can. Prime Minister John Howard said it wanted to ``prevent the further spread of gambling in this country'. He said he was aware of the desire of ``off-shore operators' to start internet betting exchanges, which let punters back losers as well as winners and act as their own bookies.
Communications Minister Daryl Williams is expected to give a progress report to Mr Howard soon on a review of the Interactive Gambling Act, which does not take the betting exchanges into account.

February 2004: See link at the bottom of this page for a comprehensive regulatorty update on Australian gaming & wagering, courtesy of legal firm Lander & Rogers.

February 2, 2004: The federal Interactive Gambling Act 2001 makes it illegal to provide or advertise interactive gambling sites, with fines of up to $220,000 a day for individuals and $1.1 million a day for corporations. But it is difficult to police because many sites are based overseas, and it does not apply to individuals using the sites.
The Australian Broadcasting Authority, which has been responsible for handling complaints about illegal online gambling since late 2001, has only identified 11 illegal websites it says should be filtered out by internet service providers.
The ABA said it had received 26 complaints and completed 20 investigations since the law was introduced. It had referred details of 11 to internet service providers for inclusion in their filter software, but customers did not have to install this software.
The Government will soon release a review of the law banning most types of interactive gaming sites.

Jul 26, 2003: The TAB Ltd, is trying to get controversial betting exchanges banned in this country.
The internet-based betting exchanges, such as UK-based Betfair, threaten to eat into the TABs' revenue. They are gaining popularity with punters because they offer better odds.
But they don't yet pay taxes to governments and the racing industry, like the major TABs.
A betting exchange taskforce, commissioned by the state and territory gaming ministers, recommended that no state government license betting exchanges. It also called for the federal government to legislate against them.
TAB now wants to convince the federal government to ban betting exchanges under the Interactive Gambling Act, as has happened in Hong Kong.
"Betting exchanges say they are good for competition. But we put up $300 million for our licence in this state. We pay 22 per cent of revenue to the state governments and we pay roughly the s