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Australia's Interactive Gambling Moratorium Ends This Week

SYDNEY, Australia – (Press Release) -- The Federal Government's moratorium on Internet gambling ends this Friday (18th May, 2001) with no clear indication of what comes next, deterring would-be investors.

The Australian Interactive Gambling Moratorium Act ("Moratorium Act") has delivered few benefits while it has diminished Australia's reputation as an attractive location for investment in online initiatives according to a local Internet expert.

Jamie Nettleton, a partner in the international law firm Coudert Brothers, claims that the Moratorium Act, and the Interactive Gambling Bill, have demonstrated that Australia has an interventionist regime and indicates to the e-commerce sector that no certainty can be given that such intervention will not occur in the future.

Mr Nettleton said that the moratorium had allowed other jurisdictions to portray themselves as an attractive destination for investment in setting up e-gambling operations utilising Australian expertise and know-how. "Australia had a significant lead on the rest of the world in the development of Internet gambling regulation but this lead has now been lost," said Mr Nettleton, who is also the chair of the sports and gaming committee of the International Bar Association.

He said that, not only had the moratorium failed to deliver any protection for Australia's problem gamblers, it had also led to many investment opportunities for the country being withdrawn, perhaps permanently.

According to Mr Nettleton, the principal objective of the gambling moratorium was to enable the National Office of the Information Economy (NOIE) to finalise its report on the feasibility and consequences of banning interactive gambling. This report was released in March and confirmed, to a substantial degree, the findings of the Productivity Commission and the Netbets Inquiry.

In short, NOIE concluded that a number of methods existed which could be implemented to impose a ban on interactive gambling, but none of these were 100% effective and each of them would impact on the costs of accessing the Internet and/or detrimentally affect the efficiencies associated with the Internet.

Notwithstanding this conclusion, the Government had effectively ignored these findings by including in the Interactive Gambling Bill measures which would impose sanctions on ISPs which do not implement procedures to limit access to overseas interactive gambling content. It is clearly recognised in the Explanatory Memorandum that these measures will not prevent such content being available to Australian residents.

Other aspects of the Interactive Gambling Bill, which is to be the subject of a report of the Senate Environment, Communications, Information Technology and the Arts Legislation Committee due to be released by 23 May, worthy of mention are:

According to Mr Nettleton "In summary, a year has passed since the moratorium was first announced by the Government. Little benefit has been achieved from the moratorium and it seems that the adverse consequences and uncertainty arising from the Moratorium Act are likely to continue pending the outcome of Parliament's consideration of the Interactive Gambling Bill."

Additional Information:

Jamie Nettleton can be reached at Coudert Brothers in Sydney, 02 9930 7569/0412 599 538.

[Editor's Note] Additional comments on the Interactive Gambling Bill 2001, as presented to the Australian Senate's Environment, Communications, Information Technology and the Arts Committee on May 4, can be read (PDF format) by accessing the Senate Committee Web site.

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