In March 1999, seeing the ever-increasing number of Australians gambling over the Internet, the Legislative Council of South Australia appointed a Select Committee to inquire into and report on Internet and interactive gambling within the state. Based upon its findings, the committee was also to provide information upon the desirability and feasibility of either regulating or prohibiting such activities.
Although the federal government has since implemented a temporary halt on interactive/Internet gambling, the South Australian "Second Interim Report of the Select Committee on Internet and Interactive Home Gambling and Gambling by Other Means of Telecommunication in South Australia" raises a
number of interesting points, most of which seem to indicate a favorable leaning towards Net betting issues. The report was tabled on October 4, 2000.
As part of its conclusions, the report explains:
Gambling is not a new product-it is already extensively available in a number of forms and used widely by South Australians. The telecommunication based delivery of a gambling product is more appropriately considered a new gambling delivery mechanism rather than a new product.
The Committee recognises that the South Australian Government is not in a position where it can legislate, one way or another, in preparation for the arrival of interactive gambling. Interactive gambling is already available to South Australians.
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While the Committee recognises and agrees that some practices have the potential to impact negatively on the community such a way that prohibition is justified, it is not the view of the majority that interactive gambling falls into this category, when approximately 98 per cent of the gambling population do so responsibly.
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It is the majority view that prohibition within South Australia on social grounds is not supported. Attempts to prohibit this activity would in any event not be fully effective and would have the undesirable impact of forcing consumers who wish to gamble on the Internet, to use unlicensed/unregulated sites and be a significant revenue leakage to other jurisdictions within Australia and overseas.
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In its final report, the Committee will consider in greater detail the desirable features of a regulatory model for interactive gambling.
Click here to read the entire report.