Given how hard the clubs industry has fought against attempts to regulate local gambling and any proposed mandatory pre-commitment scheme, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they fall on the side of liberalizing gambling laws in Australia. What is a little more surprising is the level of control the clubs seem to want over any proposed online casino system, considering their generally sceptical views of internet gaming.
At the moment, Australian companies are not permitted to offer most forms of online gambling to their customer, with the notable exception of sports betting. Given that bookmakers already have an online betting infrastructure in place, many have expected that they would take a leading role in any new online gambling offerings allowed by the government – such as a five-year trial of online poker, which has been reported as being one of the likely regulations to be put into place in the near future.
But Clubs Australia sees things a little differently. They have submitted a report to the government review program that says that clubs would be the most effective operators for any online casino gambling allowed by the government.