Australia will ban Gambling through credit cards

[piebeyb]

Yep, using credit card will make the gamblers can't control themselves because they might lost count and bear to high in the end of month. Using crypto or real money will make them aware how much the money they have and the maximum the money they can to gamble.

Although there's a chance someone might ask a loan to gamble, at least preventing by not let them to gamble directly using credit card could decrease this problem.

I think it's true that if you can, never use a credit card to gamble if you can't control yourself and gamble wisely, because without being able to control yourself it will definitely make your bills go up because you keep making deposits when you lose so it continues to make your debt high and that will It's a hassle in the end, personally I never use that method and never recommend credit cards for gambling.

I once had a friend who had a credit card bill that ballooned every month, so it's best to just use crypto and currency through a bank account so that we can limit and control our gambling budget rather than using a credit card which sometimes makes us forget ourselves when we lose. I also think the government banning the use of credit cards for gambling is a good step to keep the risk away from crazy gambling addicts.

[Eternad]

How are they losing money from that if it's being placed with interest for the people to pay later on and based on the other article I've read it was on a legal form?
Aside from that, this is still a bill so it has to be passed on many readings and proceedings before it finally becomes a law. And if it becomes a law those who are noncompliant, with this is the fine that they'll have to pay.
Australia to ban credit card use in online gambling, non-compliers to face fines up to $150K

The OP made a mistake on the subject for the lose. The article clearly stated Australian not Australia the country. The government is concerned about the welfare of its citizen since a country full of citizen with gambling problem will affect the overall community performance. This act is to control the addiction of Australian since they are losing enough money just to gamble.

Afaik, Australia is already banned of few online casino due to their online gambling law become strict few years ago.

[Johnyz]

25 billion dollars in a year is too much in one year in one country, in my opinion. This also means that the habit of many citizens in Australia is to gamble online. or maybe the others are addicted to gambling. When gambling becomes a habit, people will eventually become lazy and depend on gambling online.

It's not very good when people become habitual with them. It just means that the government cares a lot about that country and does not want its citizens to become dependent on gambling, and I also think that there is nothing wrong with that decision of the Australian government.

That's a lot to ignore and for sure the government of Australia wants to help their citizen with regards to this, or else banks will benefit a lot from this and their financial cycle will not be balance. At first, I thought this rule applies to every bank since our local bank strictly prohibit this kind of transaction though you can still proceed it but later on if the banks find out your purpose of transactions, that is the start of their investigation and your account will be in trouble.

[molsewid]

My question is If they legislate to ban gambling then what other legislation will they do to establish another recreation for the Australian populace that will have the attributes of gambling but without money. Australia is not part of those countries hitting against gambling.

People have to gamble for different purposes, like relaxation, fun moment to stay out of stress etc and they shouldn't focus on the money they feel are spent on it, moreover it is the individual money and not government money so what is the issue with that?

Maybe because if many people use credit card in their gambling spree it could harm the banks, and maybe they are also care for the gambler when using credit card even though cc has a limit still they can still play at high amount but the thing is there will be an interest when they use that instead of cash and also the banks could be affected when these gamblers cannot pay them anymore.

[Yogee]

Imho that is a stupid move and no one gonna support that. First of all, bank cards - that is something that is under control so far. If they ban card usage in online gambling, gamblers would find a way to make deposits anyway, but that will cause of shady economy increase. Second - they are limiting card users right, they are limiting bank incomes from card usage. How they gonna cover bank losses?

How is it stupid when they are only banning credit cards? I think you are confused and mixing CC with debit cards or ATM cards. It's a matter of betting the money you don't have at the moment which is cr. card VS. money that's deductible to your account upon depositing.

Nope, I am not confusing credit and debit cards. It is stupid because they are banning card in general. They are limiting the way users make deposits. Less deposits, less money comes to country budget as taxes. Lower budget will cause taxes increase in other areas.

They are specifically banning credit cards and that's not "in general". It was never mentioned that they will ban the use of debit cards or ATM cards for depositing to online casinos.

Anyway, banning credit cards is not the solution to gambling addiction. They think people would gamble less? What stops people them from withdrawing money from ATMs and making deposits in fiat? It was said that Australians lost 25 billions on legal forms of gambling. Refer to previous - it is a stupid move because it will trigger growth of  illegal forms of gambling.

Try to look at it from this point of view - the bill won't stop them but at least it would force people to gamble money at hand instead gambling on credit. That means it could prevent these gamblers from drowning into more debts because they could not pay their credit cards. Good thing you mentioned withdrawing money from ATMs because that's essentially the purpose of the bill the way I see it.

[Lucius]

I'm not someone who advocates bans and I'm more in favor of everyone using their money the way they want, but it seems that there comes a time when people need to be protected from themselves. Gambling should be fun and with a sense of responsibility, but when things get out of control and someone spends more than they earn, it becomes a problem.

The positive thing here is that Australia is actually giving up part of the income it gets from taxes considering the total amount its residents spend every year on gambling, to protect them from themselves. However, those who want to gamble will always find a way to do so, despite the bans.

[Wind_FURY]

That's a laughable move from their policy makers in Australia because it won't stop the people from losing billions more in illegal gambling. People won't stop gambling, but they're killing an industry for legal gambling.

Yep, that's true, they are killing the legal gambling in Australia for sure, and I think it might create a entirety of illegal bookies don't you think?

Plus if it's going to expand an illegal gambling cartel's financial capabilities, the money could find its way back to the policy-makers and cartels could expand their political power as well. They could also buy more guns, launder more money, making those illegal businesses grow too.

But on the other hand, the land based casinos might benefited here in the long run if the government tries to kill the online gambling business with this policies.

That's probably who's lobbying for the move.

[qwertyup23]

I'm not someone who advocates bans and I'm more in favor of everyone using their money the way they want, but it seems that there comes a time when people need to be protected from themselves. Gambling should be fun and with a sense of responsibility, but when things get out of control and someone spends more than they earn, it becomes a problem.

Things spiral out of control when gamblers have their judgement clouded due to the sheer amount of losses they have incurred. Majority of these gamblers also experience what we call "gambler's cycle" wherein they tend to recover their gambling losses by gambling again. This creates an endless cycle of them winning/losing, ultimately losing money in the long run.

The positive thing here is that Australia is actually giving up part of the income it gets from taxes considering the total amount its residents spend every year on gambling, to protect them from themselves. However, those who want to gamble will always find a way to do so, despite the bans.

No matter how many laws may be implemented, if a person is truly hungry for gambling, they will definitely find a way to continue. I guess the best of course of action may be providing better execution of laws and prohibitions to prevent these from happening.

[ChuckBuck]

isn't this a classic example of government trying to put a leash on people's habits? Don't be fooled; this move isn't really meant to stop people from gambling. It's more about keeping the money flowing. It doesn't matter what they do; people will always find ways to get around it. Healthy gambling is about personal responsibility, not government restrictions. Take a look at e-wallets, bank transfers, and other ways to pay. Online gambling isn’t going anywhere. The industry always finds a way (and even become better)

[Cling18]

I'm not someone who advocates bans and I'm more in favor of everyone using their money the way they want, but it seems that there comes a time when people need to be protected from themselves. Gambling should be fun and with a sense of responsibility, but when things get out of control and someone spends more than they earn, it becomes a problem.

Things spiral out of control when gamblers have their judgement clouded due to the sheer amount of losses they have incurred. Majority of these gamblers also experience what we call "gambler's cycle" wherein they tend to recover their gambling losses by gambling again. This creates an endless cycle of them winning/losing, ultimately losing money in the long run.

The positive thing here is that Australia is actually giving up part of the income it gets from taxes considering the total amount its residents spend every year on gambling, to protect them from themselves. However, those who want to gamble will always find a way to do so, despite the bans.

No matter how many laws may be implemented, if a person is truly hungry for gambling, they will definitely find a way to continue. I guess the best of course of action may be providing better execution of laws and prohibitions to prevent these from happening.

Maybe their goal is to protect their people from over gambling but no matter how they may stop people from gambling, they should be aware that credit cards isn't the only ways to deposit funds to gambling sites. People will always try to look for alternatives just to pursue gambling. I don't think banning will be the wisest solution that they could give because no matter what they do, as long as crypto and online casinos exist, it will still be hard for them to track gambling activities. I think the best that they can do is to conduct programs to warn people to gamble responsively because for sure, if they're country is experiencing such huge loss, many of their people are experiencing gambling addiction.

[Docnaster]

isn't this a classic example of government trying to put a leash on people's habits? Don't be fooled; this move isn't really meant to stop people from gambling. It's more about keeping the money flowing. It doesn't matter what they do; people will always find ways to get around it. Healthy gambling is about personal responsibility, not government restrictions. Take a look at e-wallets, bank transfers, and other ways to pay. Online gambling isn’t going anywhere. The industry always finds a way (and even become better)

Exactly my thoughts @ChuckBuck. There are several means of payment that are provided by online gambling platforms for their customers to use whenever they're using their sites and no matter the kind of restriction that government of Australia implements, it's not gonna stop their citizens from betting.
If the government feels that the citizens of the country are probably gambling in uncontrollable ways and sees it as a threat to national development, I think the best thing to do is to sensitive citizens of the country about the effects of gambling without control instead of banning their credit cards from being used because it's still not gonna have much effect on people that are gambling when there are some many online virtual cards.

[Bananington]

isn't this a classic example of government trying to put a leash on people's habits? Don't be fooled; this move isn't really meant to stop people from gambling. It's more about keeping the money flowing. It doesn't matter what they do; people will always find ways to get around it. Healthy gambling is about personal responsibility, not government restrictions. Take a look at e-wallets, bank transfers, and other ways to pay. Online gambling isn’t going anywhere. The industry always finds a way (and even become better)

Exactly my thoughts @ChuckBuck. There are several means of payment that are provided by online gambling platforms for their customers to use whenever they're using their sites and no matter the kind of restriction that government of Australia implements, it's not gonna stop their citizens from betting.
If the government feels that the citizens of the country are probably gambling in uncontrollable ways and sees it as a threat to national development, I think the best thing to do is to sensitive citizens of the country about the effects of gambling without control instead of banning their credit cards from being used because it's still not gonna have much effect on people that are gambling when there are some many online virtual cards.

I believe it may be because credit cards offer so much more access to funds that one wouldn't have at the instant, that is why the citizens abuse it to gamble and play bets unguarded.
More interests should be created in which citizens can excitedly channel their money into to make profits from and find fun in doing it.
Gambling ban on credit cards will not stop gamblers from finding other ways to bypass the ban inorder to bet or gamble continuously.
The game itself should be strictly regulated both online and offline and turns of plays should be limited instead.

[Hispo]

isn't this a classic example of government trying to put a leash on people's habits? Don't be fooled; this move isn't really meant to stop people from gambling. It's more about keeping the money flowing. It doesn't matter what they do; people will always find ways to get around it. Healthy gambling is about personal responsibility, not government restrictions. Take a look at e-wallets, bank transfers, and other ways to pay. Online gambling isn’t going anywhere. The industry always finds a way (and even become better)

People's habits, usually those which are mostly perceived as negative ones.
That is why once can find taxes on tobacco, alcohol and gambling, in the end, it indeed does not matter what kind of restrictions governments try to set, everyone needs their entertaining activities (whatever they need to escape reality for some hours a day).

On the other hand, this may accelerate Bitcoin gambling in Australia or make people from that country to get accounts in reputable casinos overseas.

[Slow death]

I am not a citizen of Australia so I have no way of accessing the bill or other news that could give many details about the draft of this law, but from what little I was able to research it seems to me that it is not as if the government is approving laws that prohibit their citizens from using online casinos, from what I understand is that the Australian government had already prohibited physical casinos that are in Australia from accepting credit card payments for very obvious reasons, and that when people are using cards of credit they are incurring debts, so it was necessary for the government to also apply the same prohibition that they applied to physical casinos to online casinos. and as they are passing laws related to credit cards, the Australian government has also included a ban on purchasing digital currencies using credit cards

Let’s look at this article that I was able to read:

The Interactive Gambling Amendment (Credit and Other Measures) Bill 2023 seeks to ban credit cards and other credit-related products, as well as digital currencies.

source: https://igamingbusiness.com/legal-compliance/legal/australia-credit-card-gambling-ban/

I believe that when they introduced digital currency they were saying that people in Australia could not use digital currency created in Australia, something like not being able to use some type of digital currency created by the Central Bank of Australia to play in the online casino, I don't know if in Australia have digital currency created by the government or central bank, but even if they don't have it yet, in the future they may have it and this law will be in accordance. So my conclusion is the following:

1 - people in Australia will continue using physical and online casinos but will have to play with their own money from debit cards and physical money and cryptocurrencies

2 - this law is not prohibiting cryptocurrencies and is not prohibiting people from using physical casinos and online casinos, so in practice it is a good law, from what I read in other articles, online casinos in Australia supported this law, so it is a good law. In case there is someone who lives in Astralia and sees that I got everything wrong, feel free to correct me.

[maydna]

~snip~

Yep, using credit card will make the gamblers can't control themselves because they might lost count and bear to high in the end of month. Using crypto or real money will make them aware how much the money they have and the maximum the money they can to gamble.

Although there's a chance someone might ask a loan to gamble, at least preventing by not let them to gamble directly using credit card could decrease this problem.

You are right. It can cause difficulties for those who gamble with credit cards. They will not realize that they have used a lot of money to gamble because in fact, at that time, they did not spend any money at all. But later, at the end of the month or the beginning of the month, they have to pay their debt to the credit card company. And if they can't control themselves while gambling, they may incur quite a large debt depending on how much money they use. So it's best not to gamble using a credit or debit card because it can make us lose money.

[YOSHIE]

Australia is looking to ban credit card usage in online gambling. The reason they give is that Australia loses 25 billion dollars only in gambling in a year. That is a big amount indeed.

If I read correctly, the reason Australia prohibits its people from gambling using credit cards and if the two government reasons are as mentioned.

“It’s as simple as this: People should not be betting with money they do not have,” she said.

“The Australian government remains committed to protecting Australians from gambling harms.”

For me, it is normal for the government to implement a bill prohibiting gambling using credit cards, because they know the risk of harm that arises for Australian society in general.

Regarding the Australian government's actions and regulations on gambling, in my opinion it is a good step, because with a credit card in hand, people enthusiastically use all the balance on their credit card, without considering the monthly risk they have to deposit intothe bank.

However, Australians can still gamble online using other methods, apart from credit cards and digital currency, such as: Transfez, Flip, Western Union and so on.

[BITCOIN4X]

Using a credit card to bet is the same as betting with loan money. Of course, this can increase the risk of failure when paying loans, so the government should prohibit this from continuing to be done by gamblers in that country. As long as these gamblers have money in hand, they are free to gamble at any casino (if gambling is legal) even though the risk of losing money remains the same.

The impact of gambling is basically the same, but the Australian government seems quite wise in dealing with gamblers with these rules. In the end, the government does not allow people to gamble with money they do not have, while they do not prohibit gambling. But what's the point of them banning people from using crypto on gambling?

[aioc]

Is this bill means that Australia is going to ban online gambling because if people can't use a credit card or crypto, how will they do online gambling?

The government has considered the losses incurred by its people so they banned the use of credit cards and Cryptocurrency with huge fines, Australian gamblers' only recourse is to go to countries and play at Physical casinos do underground betting or they are going to use VPN to access the casinos.

Australia is not the only country that does this and they just want to protect their citizen from accumulating losses from gambling the figure is very alarming it just proves that many Australians gamble or do not have control over the amount they are playing.

[AicecreaME]

Based from what you stated, it's just the credit card mode of deposit that is going to be banned in Australia gambling platforms. The players can still use e-wallets or debit card as their payment or deposit method to play into their favorite website. It just makes a little inconvenience to have a lesser option to use for gambling, but I believe Australian government will do this for a good reason.

It's not really healthy and heartwarming to lose a lot of money because of people's irresponsibility. It's more of infuriating and disappointing for sure to the side of the government and specially to the side of the banks. Hence, one way to cut this losses is to cut the source of fund of those people who doesn't have enough resources for gambling to begin with. With this, they limit the financial dependency on credit and loans of the gamblers and perhaps this will make them reflect and think about having other source of fund just to be able to play and bet.

[shogun47]

Australia is looking to ban credit card usage in online gambling. The reason they give is that Australia loses 25 billion dollars only in gambling in a year. That is a big amount indeed.

Although the title says, the ban of credit cards but when you read the actual news it says that they will ban crypto usage in online gambling too.

The Bill, set to be introduced to federal parliament on Wednesday, will illegalise the use of credit cards and digital currencies in online wagering and slap fines up to $234,750 on companies that don’t enforce the ban.

Is this bill means that Australia is going to ban online gambling because if people can't use a credit card or crypto, how will they do online gambling?

More Reading:-
Australia to ban the use of credits cards in online gambling

Have fun banning crypto from being used for online gambling... If they do that, the only outcome will be that there are casinos specifically focusing on providing players with crypto an anonymous environment to still use it. They would have to ban the entire infrastructure until the very cash out that could happen p2p without any official intermediary. I think a ban is something that just can't be enforced. Having rules in place is one thing, enforcing them is what really counts.