Online casinos accepting players from Australia

The Commonwealth of Australia is a diverse land in many ways from the largest metro area, Sydney with over 5 million people, to Tasmania and other smaller islands. One of the many common

threads that bind the six states and ten territories is a high level of participation in gambling and betting activities.

That commonality is also met with opposition to some forms of gambling by social health advocates as well as competing interests in some sectors. Australians are notoriously the most prolific bettors on the planet based on per capita spend, with Singaporeans a far distant second.

According to over three decades worth of data published each year by the Queensland Government Statistician's Office, on average, Australian adults bet nearly $11,000 per person, each year. Taking in data from H2 Gambling Capital, we see the trend in betting and gambling continue to increase over the predictable future.

So how does online gambling fit into the picture?

Recent Legislation

On August 9, 2017, the Australian parliament approved the Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill 2016 (IGA) and submitted it to the Governor General for Royal Assent. It was promulgated on the 16th and set to come into effect on 13 September 2017. All publically traded offshore companies that had previously offered online gambling, betting or poker pulled out of the market without delay.

The bill provided for combined criminal and civil penalties of up to $13 million for violating provisions of the law. These only apply to providers of gaming services, not consumers. Australians are still free to bet at offshore facilities.

Several reputable and some less than savory private online operators had anticipated the change and either launched new gaming sites and casinos or ramped up efforts to attract Australian players.

In June 2018, the Interactive Amendment (Lottery Betting) Bill 2018 amended the IGA yet again making keno and "synthetic lotteries" forbidden services to provide.

We can always hope that some form of regulation will be implemented at the state and territorial level. Prohibition has proved to be the wrong way to go over and over again. Not only across the globe in the USA, but certainly in Australia with the average adult betting over $11,000 per year and few protections other than bans on certain types of sports advertising.

Between this site and our sister-sites, we have reviewed nearly 2,000 online gaming operations over the years. Ownership and management changes, new sites pop up regularly, and sometimes a property will go out of business among all the competition and the patchwork of laws.

The casinos you see here are rated and ranked. Players in Australia and all over the world have weighed in with their approvals and disapprovals of every operation listed. Those at the top of the list are the best ones out there for the region.

We also use the geolocation technology that's built into web browsers. If you are visiting this page from Australasia, you will see the venues that accept players from your area. If you are in another region, either locally available properties will show up or none will at all. One thing this does is help us only show the properties that offer the best bonuses and terms and accept players in Australia.

Licensing and Regulation in Australia

The regulatory bodies in charge of wagering and betting in Australia are the Department of Racing, Gaming and Liquor (Western Australia) and the Independent Gambling Authority (Southern Australia). There are also five independent regulators and two ministerial directed departments of government regionally. Federal police, communications, and financial authorities (AML) can also take part in certain elements of gambling regulation and enforcement.

Licensed commercial operators are allowed to offer fixed-odds sportsbetting and lottery services in Australia.

In-play sports betting is prohibited but the practice is allowed for horse betting.

Tasmania and the Northern Territory offer betting exchange licenses.

The Northern Territory is still authorized to grant interactive gaming licenses to non-Australian facing operators but nearly all licensing activity stopped with the USA's UIGEA of 2006.

Legal online gambling in Australia

There are currently no laws or regulations prohibiting Australians from betting online at licensed sites or offshore casinos, sports betting, and poker sites not licensed in the country.

Australia started out as an online-friendly country in the 1990s and even issued online casino licenses in Victoria and Tasmania for a time. However, a Productivity Commission Report in 1999 turned the tide and a one-year moratorium on new licenses soon came into effect.

The Interactive Gambling Act - 2001 sought to limit Australians' access to online gaming and betting. Some considered the law to be full of gray areas and loopholes. This condition left the market open to all international operators with offices and servers located offshore.

In 2008, there was an initiative to block the ISPs of online casinos but the efforts were unsuccessful. However, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is now successfully ordering Australian internet service providers (ISPs) to block websites under section 313 of the Telecommunications Act. Unfortunately, as soon as a reputable site is blocked, it becomes more possible for unsavory operators to fill the void, leaving players holding the bag.

The IGA and subsequent amendments do not create, modify, or confirm any prohibition against people in Australia gambling at offshore sites. However, as is the case in most instances of prohibition rather than regulation, citizens enjoy no protection provided by their government and are left to fend for themselves if they make a bad choice, or if a formerly good offshore internet betting site suddenly goes bad.

Top Online Casinos for Australia

The Federal and regional governments have chosen, so far, not to license online casinos and poker sites, nor offer player protections. That makes it all the more important for consumers to keep themselves informed, as well as arm themselves with the tools to collect their own funds should a disagreement occur.

Licensing - Considering the fact it took more than a decade and a half for parliament to clearly define what the IGA 2001 was supposed to accomplish, we don't expect any of the regional governments to race to be the first to offer online casino licenses in the country. That means you will need to depend on another country's regulator for consumer protection for the time being.

While some jurisdictions are certainly better than others, about all you can do is confirm that a site is indeed licensed. Most Curacao licensed online casinos provide a clickable link in the footer of their website that will bring up a license validator.

Secure Platform - All personal and financial data should be transmitted over an encrypted secure socket layer (SSL-128 or 256). That is always the case for the casino's protection as well as your own. However, if you get a browser warning that a website is not secure, or that a security certificate has expired, click away rather than proceeding.

Player reviews - In addition to reading review sites, it's always good to visit player forums to get a more up to the moment perspective. Other players will freely share their experiences and it's easy enough to spot a shill or a sore loser.

Payment Methods - This can be a difficult area for some new players or those coming back online after the big companies pulled out. The good news is that casinos accepting Australian players have solutions for you.

While Neteller, Skrill, and Paysafecard may no longer be an option, there is always something you can use, like Neosurf. You may need to deposit using a credit or debit card and withdraw to your bank account. 

The payment methods are always changing in soft-prohibition markets. We suggest a quick chat with customer service at an online gaming site in order to get up to speed or up to date.

Cryptocurrencies

As of the time of this review, major digital currency exchanges were still serving the Australian market to some degree. Aussies can buy a variety of cryptos on Coinbase with a debit card or a credit card that has been registered for some time. It is no longer possible to link new credit cards to an AUD account.

The rub comes in when trying to get your Bitcoin or other currency back out. Coinbase will not allow you to sell your coins outright for AUD. It is beyond the scope of this review to go into details, however, a quick search of timely posts on the internet will reveal safe and secure ways to do it. In a nutshell, transfer your BTC/ETH, etc., from your Coinbase account to another wallet or email address that allows sales in AUD and sell from there. It is an extra step and you may find a larger, more secure exchange as user-friendly than Coinbase, but we are yet to.

Many players are currently using Independent Reserve and Coinjar for crypto to AUD transactions.

Author: Lars Jones