Australian Live Casinos

As it stands, online gambling in Australia currently exists in a sort of legal grey area. The regulations are often vague, differ by state and territory, and most importantly – not actually enforced. 

The most important piece of legislation is the Interactive Gambling Act of 2001. This law explicitly states that offering ‘prohibited interactive gambling services’ to customers in Australia is strictly illegal. That may sound fairly clear-cut, but it’s everything but. 

First of all, states have their own licensing authorities which issue online gambling licenses. However, almost every territory has its own, and it’s exceedingly difficult to check if a company has an actual license or not. Furthermore, this requires each casino to specifically target regions instead of the whole country. 

Since legal online casinos in Australia are stuck fighting an uphill battle, this ‘grey market’ is flourishing. On one hand, there are offshore casinos that offer gambling services to Australians. These can be perfectly safe, as long as they are properly licensed by a respected regulative body. While technically not legal, the laws of Australia specifically target service providers and not customers. In other words, you won’t break any laws by simply playing at an offshore casino. You may find that the site is blocked, though this can be resolved by a simple VPN.

Otherwise, there are offers such as Cryptocurrency casinos that can be used to circumvent traditional gambling regulations. 

If neither of these options appeals to you, that’s fine. There are still safe, licensed Australian operators, as can be seen on this page. Just keep in mind that your options are somewhat limited.

Key points about live casinos in Australia

• Total gambling expenditure in Australia exceeds AUD 25 billion annually. Sports betting and land-based gambling account for a big chunk of this, but you can see why casinos value the market so highly.
• This means that Aussie players have dozens of the world’s best live dealer casinos vying for their attention. It’s a highly competitive industry, and savvy customers can reap the benefits.
• Online gambling in Australia is not regulated by a single, unified authority. Instead, licensing and regulation are deligated to State-specific bodies. This leaves Aussie online casinos in a precarious position and is one of the reasons the laws are so ineffective.
• Thankfully, Australians can freely access offshore casino sites, giving them a wealth of options. Most of the regulations are aimed squarely at service providers instead of customers.
• Moreover, cryptocurrency betting such as on BitCoin casinos has been on the rise in recent years. The ability to wager with cryptos gives players the peace of mind that local legislation will never get in their way. Moreover, players can access a wider range of casino software providers and platforms. Cryptocurrencies have their downsides, of course, but there’s a reason people turn to them so often.
• Unfortunately, the Australian Dollar is not a very popular currency with international online casinos. Specifically, Australian sites or Aussie-facing casinos offer AUD payments, of course, but offshore ones rarely do.