Online gambling consumers in Australia will soon have to find new ways to fund their accounts.Credit card purchases for online gambling will be phased out due to new laws coming into force nationwide.
In an April 4 announcement, the government confirmed that it was working on regulations to outlaw the relationship between credit cards and online gaming.With the Bank Identification Number (BIN), Australia will be able to prevent purchases similar to land-based gambling.
Two government officials, Communications Minister Michelle Rowland and Family and Social Services Minister Amanda Richworth, will work out the details with the gaming industry.Gaming operators like Crown Resorts already know how to circumvent regulation.
Enhanced consumer control
The Australian Communications and Media Authority will have special powers to enforce this prohibition.We can also build payment systems to detect and restrict credit card transactions that online game operators attempt to process.
Following the standard course of gaming regulation, the new policy does not apply to lotteries such as those offered by state governments.The reason is that lottery tickets aren't as addictive as some studies have found to the contrary.
Les Bernal, National Director of America's Stop Predatory Gambling Organization, recently explained how addictive lotteries can be.His research concludes that Americans will lose $8 billion in personal wealth to lottery products over the next eight years.
Similar results are seen in Australia. According to the Australian Institute of Family Studies, buying lottery tickets is the number one form of gambling in the country. In 1, Australian consumers spent a total of A$2020 billion (US$1740 billion) on gambling.
Lishworth said the Australian government is not against gambling in general, but against the financial burden that gambling habits have on individuals.Rowland added that consumers shouldn't "gamble with money they don't have."
Independent politician Andrew Wilkie, also an advocate of gambling reform, sees the ban as an important step to reduce the negative effects of gambling.He is adamant that once the law is fully upheld, it should not be diluted by lengthy debates.
game the system
For the new policy to be effective, game operators must also follow the rules.Crown and Star Entertainment have already proven that the system can be used.
Both have spent years tricking financial institutions and casino regulators into manipulating entertainment receipts to allow Chinese VIPs to gamble with their credit cards.There is also evidence of forging lodging bills to allow high rollers to purchase chips with their credit cards.
Online games can't do that, but there are ways to get around the restrictions.For example, an operator can create a fake e-commerce site, accept payments, and channel the payments to an online gaming account.There is also a method for consumers to request cash advances from credit card companies.Then you can spend the money however you like.
Such topics may be included in future discussions regarding new credit card blocking.There is no exact deadline for the implementation of this regulation, but it will be implemented within a few months.
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