Australian financial counselors have been urging the government to take actions against the major gambling companies that provide live online betting options and the somewhat dubious practices they use to attract customers.
Under the current Australian gambling regulations, betting on live events is permitted only on the phone or in person. The so-called in-play betting gives gambling customers the opportunity to wager on events at the moment of their happening.
However, some of the world’s biggest betting companies providing their services in Australia have found a way to get around the strict rules. They have been instructing bettors to turn their computer or mobile microphone on while placing their bets on different sports events.
Experts noted that such practices could be considered dangerous to customers. For instance, financial counselor and problem gambling specialist Pam Mutton commented that online betting poses much more serious risks than poker machines, for example, as bettors can place their bets practically everywhere and at any time.
Ms. Mutton also expressed her disapproval of the tactics that gaming companies have been using to draw the attention of more customers to the various gambling options they offer.
Gambling operators offering bettors loans without certain credit checks being carried out is yet another practice that has been found dubious by many. Nick Xenophon, an Independent Senator for South Australia, said that the government should take measures against this, too.
According to the official, a certain regulatory framework should be prepared and it shold prevent companies from offering such credits to customers. In other words, those business entities should be treated like financial institutions and loans should be subjected to thorough checks before being granted.
Earlier this week, the Australian government announced that it would review the current online gambling regulations and particularly the ones related to the provision of offshore betting and gambling options.
Commenting on this latest announcement, Senator Xenophon said that a review of this kind cannot be considered a comprehensive enough one. According to him, it would only do “half the job” as a big portion of the money customers lose on online gambling comes from legal sites. The official noted that this is at least A$1 billion every year.
Senator Xenophon pointed out that to neglect those authorized sites and to pay due attention only to the illegal offshore ones is a pure “copout.”
