Australia Gambling Sites
Last but not least, FairGo Casino is a Deckmedia-powered site also themed on Australia – a koala bear is its mascot. FairGo boasts excellent bonus deals and a rich collection of pokie machines by RTG. Customers can fund their accounts with Neosurf prepaid card, MasterCard, Visa, bank transfer and Bitcoin. Australia allows offshore gambling sites to be blocked At the end of 2019 ACMA began forcing ISPs to block gambling sites that were found to be in breach of the Interactive Gambling Act 2001. The largest gambling city in Australia is Sydney, New South Wales with 10 gambling facilities, 635 tables games, 2,016 gaming, slot, and video poker machines. The largest casino in the entire country of Australia is Aquis Great Barrier Reef Casino which is located in Yorkeys Knob, Queensland.
Our Top Picks for the Land Down Under.
Australians love to gamble, whether it involves playing at an upscale casino or wagering on the results of a coin toss down at the pub. Online gambling in Australia has also been on the rise in recent years, a trend that’s expected to continue as more residents obtain Internet service or mobile devices.
Best Australia Gambling Sites of 2020 – We like to gather together lists of top gambling websites, and this time we’ve done the same for our Australian visitors. Without further ado, here’s our list of best gambling sites for Australia.
What Do These Sites Have In Common?
- All Aussie-friendly deposit methods available (like POLi and Paysafecard).
- Great promotions, great software, great service.
- Each of these sites caters to customers from !
Our Top Recommended Australia Gambling Sites
Rank | Site | Play | Bonus |
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100% up to €250
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200% up to €500
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100% up to €400
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100% up to €300
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100% up to €400
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The Cost of Aussie Gambling
According to recent studies, the average Australian resident spends AUD $1,172 on gambling each year. More than 80% of the population engages in some form of gaming, with annual losses falling into the range of $20 billion. In 2014, the gambling industry generated $5.44 billion in tax revenue for the nation.
While the largest percentage of yearly gaming expenditures go to land-based options such as pokies (slot machines), the online industry is beginning to close the gap. Australians spend AUD $960 million annually on Internet gambling, with more than half of this going to licensed virtual bookmakers.
Most residents view online and land-based gaming as harmless fun, but opponents point to a number of causes for concern. Gamblers who play on a weekly basis are estimated to spend around AUD $7,000 annually, and those with addictions can run through almost $1,500 per hour (with an average loss of $21,000 per year).
Teenagers are also becoming more involved in online gambling, with a recent poll finding that 2% have tried real-money gaming sites. Considering that 18 to 24-year-olds play pokies more than any other age group, it’s not surprising that the younger generation would quickly turn to the Internet as their source of entertainment.
Why do Australians Love to Gamble?
There are two main schools of thought on this subject. The first involves the history of the nation and a long-standing idea of “big risk, big reward.” Settling Australia was no easy task, and those involved often faced a hardscrabble and sometimes lawless existence. Gambling was a way to pass the time, and it also held the promise of immediately improving their lot in life (at least for a little while).
This acceptance (and sometimes love) of gambling has been passed down through the generations. While their counterparts from other nations carefully watch bank balances and fret over every expense, the classic Aussie throws caution to the wind, risks his paycheck on a potential profit, and then buys a pint for his mates.
The second opinion on the subject has to do with money and marketing. Pokies and other gaming options are available in hotels, pubs, and other public places, so the average Aussie is constantly bombarded with opportunities to gamble. Combine this with the government’s reluctance to interfere with a cash cow that generates billions in tax revenue, as well as no taxes on player winnings, and you have a situation where residents become willing slaves to the gaming industry.
Interactive Gambling Act of 2001
The most significant piece of Australian legislation involving online gaming is the Interactive Gambling Act of 2001. Put in place by the Commonwealth Parliament to protect citizens, it prohibits Australian-based companies from offering Internet gaming to residents. For those who enjoy virtual gambling, however, there are a number of convenient exceptions.
Firstly, offshore gambling sites may legally offer their services to Australian players. However, they may not advertise their sites via radio, television, or billboard ads.
Sportsbooks and lotteries operate under a different set of rules. If either one of these services is licensed to operate a land-based business in an Australian state or territory, then they may also provide a virtual counterpart for customers within the licensed region.
If an online casino wants to base its operations in Australia, it can legally offer its services to players residing in other countries. The only exception involves nations that prohibit offshore gambling and have sent a formal request to Aussie authorities.
Stiff financial penalties are in place for any operation found in violation of the Interactive Gambling Act. Individuals directly involved with the offending organization can be fined up to $220,000 per day, while the actual company faces a $1.1 million daily penalty.
Online Regulation in Australia
The nation’s most important piece of legislation involving gambling was put into place by the Commonwealth of Australia, but territories and states usually have free reign to make their own decisions. If you’d like to know more about the land-based and online gambling regulations within a specific part of Australia, I suggest visited the official website of one of the following government bodies:
- The Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation (Richmond, Victoria)
- Tasmanian Gaming Commission (Hobart, Tasmania)
- Independent Gambling Authority (Adelaide, South Australia)
- Office of Liquor, Gaming, and Racing (Haymarket, New South Wales)
- Department of Racing, Gaming, and Liquor (East Perth, Western Australia)
- Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation (Brisbane, Queensland)
- ACT Gambling and Racing Commission (Canberra, Australian Capital Territory)
Please note that the Northern Territory isn’t included on the above list. Oversight in this region for everything from prostitution to gambling was once overseen by the Licensing Commission, which existed from 2000 to 2014. This commission has been abolished, however, and replaced with a position known as the Director-General of Licensing. At this time, no website exists for the individual or their office.
Conclusion
To the best of our knowledge (disclaimer: we’re not lawyers and this information is for entertainment-purposes only), online gambling in Australia is legal, but there are certain requirements that need to be met. An Aussie-based gaming site can offer their business to foreign clients, but homegrown customers are prohibited. Gaming sites outside of Oz are perfectly within the law, and they can provide services to any citizen that meets the minimum age requirement.
- Discover how to enjoy the very best online gambling sites available to Australians in Aussie dollars.
- At gambling.net we’ll make sure you play safe, bank safe, and win safe.
- Find the online gambling sites with 24/7 customer support so you can enjoy online games on Aussie time!
Australia Sports Betting Sites
Online gambling is big in Australia, and it is growing every day. On Gambling.net, we're on top of the unique online gambling Australia has to offer players. We've tracked down the best betting sites for Australians, and can give you the most up to date information possible about the legal situation when it comes to online gambling in Australia.
Current State of Australian Online Gambling
If you've paid any attention at all to gambling news in Australia over the last year or two, you've heard a lot about gambling reform. Luckily, though, this has centred mostly on the pokies found in clubs and land-based casinos, while online gambling has largely been left alone.
This means that Australian players have access to a wide range of online gambling sites. There's an interesting mix of sites regulated inside the country and those based overseas, a divide that has largely been driven by Australia's aging regulation of online gambling.
Online Gambling in Australia: Legal
Australia Online Gambling Sites
At the moment, online gambling sites in Australia are governed by the 2001 Interactive Gambling Act. This law made it illegal for online gambling operators to offer real money games to residents of Australia. However, it left a cut-out for sports betting, which regulated Australian sportsbooks still offer to local punters to this day. In addition, it allowed sites that were already in operation to be grandfathered in, though no Australia-based online casinos or poker rooms still exist today.
At the same time, the IGA did nothing to prevent Australians from playing on foreign-based online gambling sites. This means that online gambling in Australia is legal from the player's perspective, and almost all major online gambling sites around the world actively recruit Australian players for real money play.
Finding the Best Online Gambling Sites for Australia
Since Australians have so many options available to them, picking the best online gambling sites can be difficult. We've done the necessary research to figure out what sites are best for Australians, and which you can safely ignore. Since gambling in Australia is popular in so many forms, that means we've looked at sports betting sites, casinos, online poker rooms and more.
When choosing the best gambling websites for Australia, we took many different factors into account. First, we started by looking at the online gambling sites that we personally knew were among the best in the industry: those sites that are trustworthy and fun to play at, that have great software and awesome bonuses for players. More than that, though, we also picked sites that offered features that were designed specifically for Australian gambling, like the ability to play in Australian dollars or promotions for events taking place in Australia.
Canada Gambling Sites
Banking at Australian Online Gambling Sites
We also looked for sites that took full advantage of the many different deposit and withdrawal options available to Australians. Since gambling in Australia is freely available, most deposit options are open to players there. For instance, all the major e-wallet sites like Neteller and Skrill accept Australian members, or you can use a credit or debit card - most are usually accepted. Another popular option is POLi, an online banking system that many online gambling sites accept for direct bank deposits.