Australians bet on everything and the many land-based casino venues available to us around the country means there are plenty of options for playing roulette. This page details the current gambling regulations and laws in our country for all punters to better understand the legal gambling age and which land-based casino venues are safe and legal to play at.
Australian gambling laws
Thanks for visiting True Blue Punter: the independent guide to gambling in Australia. Our goal is to provide you with a comprehensive source of info on the Aussie gambling scene — including everything from the best value lotteries, to popular land casinos, to online gambling sites, to poker competitions, bingo halls, and more. With the growing popularity of Casinos in today’s life, it becomes mandatory to give a glimpse of the best casinos that Australia is a home to. 10 Top Casinos In Australia. Here are some of the best casinos in the southern continent that will provide you with a wholesome luxury experience: 1. Adelaide Casino. There are 8 states and territories with gambling facilities in Australia which have 20 legal gambling facilities available in total, though we’ve cut this down with the following list. The Best Casinos in Australia.
The Australian and state governments regulate real money gambling and use this form of entertainment as a major economical and tourism draw-card. Melbourne, Victoria owns the largest land-based casino in the Southern hemisphere, Crown Casino, with the entire entertainment complex occupying an area of 510,000 squared metres, making it also one of the largest casinos in the world.
Casinos around our country are all governed by their respective state gaming regulatory bodies (discussed below), but the legal gambling age limit is fixed to 18 across the entire continent. While there is a want to keep gambling as an enjoyable and clean form of entertainment, there is always the potential for illicit and dangerous betting, so governmental laws are enforced in order to attempt to restrain the negative side-effects of this activity.
Below are the links to each Australian state and territory’s gaming regulatory body:
- Australian Capital Territory – The ACT Gambling and Racing Commission
- New South Wales – Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing
- Northern Territory – Licensing Commission
- Queensland – Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation
- South Australia – The Independent Gambling Authority
- Tasmania – Tasmanian Gaming Commission
- Victoria – Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation
- Western Australia – Department of Racing, Gaming and Liquor
What about online gambling?
In Australia, online gambling is covered under the laws of the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 (IGA). While the original wording of the IGA banned online casino operators from operating within our borders or from advertising services to Australian players, the laws were filled will all kinds of loopholes that allowed offshore casino sites to continue to service the Australian market. In September 2017, those loopholes were closed with the introduction of the Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill, which was implemented to ban offshore gambling sites from offering their services to Australian players unless they have an Australian-issued license to do so.
The technicality here is there is nothing in the IGA amendments that punishes Australian players who continue to frequent offshore casino sites. With many foreign casinos choosing to continue to service the Australian market, there are still choices available to Aussie residents who want to play online, with the risk completely on the operator. It’s important to note that licensed online casinos must adhere to strict rules and regulations set by their country of jurisdiction, including adhering to minimum gambling age requirements. All Australians who choose to play at online casinos must be at least 18 years of age, regardless of where the casino is located.
Read more about Australia’s online gambling laws.
Why 18?
Are There Gambling Casinos In Australia Now
Across Australia, the age at which you can start to legally gamble on any form of real money betting, including lotteries, bingo halls, sport and race betting, and casino betting, is 18.
In America, the legal gambling age is dependent on what state you reside in, with states setting the age restriction level at 18, 19 or 21.
In Britain, the age limit is also set at 18, although exceptions do exist for national lotteries and scratch-cards, where those who are 16 or older can partake in such betting.
Australia is consistent with it’s laws and rules relating to activities and actions considered to be adult-based, such as drinking alcohol, gambling, voting and being prosecuted by the law – actions which are widely accepted to have the need to be regulated based on age. A 15-year-old teenager’s brain is much less developed than that of a 23-year-old, as is his/her maturity level, social awareness, and many other important factors; and so this has an immediate effect on the decisions the teenager is prone to make.
In regards to the age of criminal responsibility across Australia, from 14 years to 18 years of age (17 in Victoria), those who commit a crime may be held fully responsible for their actions, but are prosecuted under a different set a criminal sanctions than an individual over 18 who commits the same offence – the 14 to 17-year-old (or 18) is still treated as a child/juvenile (information gathered from the Australian Institute of Criminology). This is one of the most difficult areas of criminal justice – deciding when an individual should be regarded as a fully responsible adult – and it subsequently has vast effects on other areas of the law, such as gambling.
Penalties of under-age gambling
One of the main reasons behind the enforcement of gambling laws is to protect children from obsessive gambling and becoming addicted. Back in 2007, Britain allowed children of any age to play five-pound slot machines games, and still allow individuals 16 years and over to buy lottery tickets, scratch-cards and partake the football pools. It was found in an expert study (by David Cameron) that three-and-a-half per cent of British children aged between 11 to 15 (around 100,000 children at the time) were considered ‘problem gamblers’.
In Australia, it is considered a criminal offence for anyone under 18 to partake in real money gambling, and individuals under that age bracket caught engaging in such activities can be prosecuted accordingly – they may be subject to fines and court-ordered measures like care and control, supervision and assessment orders.
Gambling in a positive light
When people mention the word gambling, it is often thought of with negative connotations; however it doesn’t have to be. Gambling should be considered an enjoyable form of entertainment once you are legally allowed to do so. Obviously, maintaining a suitable bankroll limit and knowing when to stop is imperative, and if we ever find we are no longer enjoying gambling, this is a good indicator to stop. There are multiple government-owned gambling help services, such as Problem Gambling Victoria if we feel we are no longer in control of our actions.
Games like roulette, blackjack and poker are thoroughly enjoyable, and when cash is on the line, it often makes it all that more exciting.
Best Online Casinos in Australia
Casino gambling has always been a huge part of the Aussie culture and since the entry of online casino gambling, everything is escalating rather faster than it was anticipated. Over 2.5 million Australians spend time at the best Aussie online casinos enjoying the thrill of playing casino games right from the comfort of wherever they may be. Still, every online casino in Australia will claim to be the best but this is not always the case and this is exactly why you need expert guidance from us.
- Sports
- Casino
- Esports
- Poker
- Sports
- Casino
- Esports
- Poker
- Sports
- Casino
- Esports
- Poker
State of Online Gambling in Australia
The increasing performance of devices such as smartphones and portable computers has made online casino gambling a force to reckon with. While online gambling in many parts of the world, including Australia, kicked off in the 90s with the internet boom, more online applications are being discovered right now. With these discoveries, there have been tremendous improvements on offerings from online casinos and it should get better as more advancements are made.
Are There Gambling Casinos In Australia Right Now
Owing to the rapid growth of the online gambling sector, the Australian parliament came up with the Interactive Gambling Act (IGA) – the act was meant to either stop or control online casino operators who were offering their services to Australian players. We’ll talk a little more about this law below, where we’ll discuss the legality of gambling with real money at Australian online casinos.
Is It Legal to Gamble with Real Money at Australian Casino Sites
Are There Gambling Casinos In Australia Near
Australia’s Interactive Gambling Act (IGA) prohibits Australian-based gaming firms from offering online gambling services to Australian citizens. However, the law does not restrict Australian gamblers from playing at online casinos that are owned and operated outside Australian borders. There are a number of these sites in existence with a number of them built specifically for the Australian gambling market.
Most of the popular online casino operated in Australia operated within the country before IGA was implemented. To keep their businesses going they had to set up shop in other countries. The bill was recently amended and now the only online casinos that are legal in the country are those that are actually located in Australia. While no ‘legal’ casino has been availed to Australians as of now, there are still a decent number of legalized online casinos with licenses from other jurisdictions that can be accessed by Australian players. The ones we recommend match this criterion.
Are There Gambling Casinos In Australia Today
What Makes the Best Aussie Online Casinos?
Considering the issues that are now affecting the Australian online gambling scene, the standards are pretty high for a casino that claims to be the best paying online casino in Australia or the most trustworthy one. As such, one key factor that defines the best online casino in Australia is fairness and full transparency of the rules.
Our team has tons of experience in painstakingly reviewing and scrutinizing the terms and conditions presented by online casinos. All of the casinos we are recommending are the best because they only feature fair clauses. Furthermore, players do not have to worry about predatory procedures or even unscrupulous withdrawal procedures.
On the same note, the only casino we consider to be the best and worth recommending are those that are licensed in their respective jurisdictions and are regularly audited by reputable independent bodies.
Since they are offshore, security has to be a top priority especially when it comes to the payment services that the online casinos allow. The sites we are recommending are not only protected using the latest state-of-the-art encryption technology but also feature fail proof payment services with fast transaction processing speeds.
Another factor that makes a site to be considered as one of the best is that it must be powered by the best software providers in the world. This normally guarantees flawless gameplay, as well as the games being just and fair.
We are not asking you to blindly trust our selection of the best online casino in Australia. Our claims are backed by reputable regulation and independent auditing bodies like eCOGRA. These bodies stringently test such things as the Random Number Generators and the overall fairness of the games. Similarly, we have ensured that all the casinos on our list are also operating legally in their jurisdictions and in Australia as well.
What We Check
Before a casino makes it to our list, it has to undergo a number of strict and extensive tests designed to reveal the true nature of all aspects of its operation. We also utilize customer feedback on such aspects as customer support services to back the first-hand information we obtain. Among the most important factors we consider are;
Fairness and transparency – these are important as they are key determinants of whether customers will trust an online casino or not. All the casinos in our list feature great software and thus fairness is guaranteed for all the games. Similarly, they are quite transparent about how and where they operate from, their ratings from auditors and the payment services they use.
It must have a good selection of payment methods
After all, if players are going to have to struggle in order to deposit money into their casino account, chances are it’s not going to be any easier when it comes time to withdraw.
Variety of games
We understand how important game selection is to online gamblers. An online casino should be able to offer all the games available in land-based casinos and even more where possible. As long as you are playing at any of our recommended online casinos for the US players you will never have to worry about getting bored.
Overall security
While this should be a defining factor for every online casino, not all of them are equal in this regard as well. Some casinos invest in security but others are not too serious about it. Well, to us, the protection of customer personal information including transactions, personal info, and banking information is very important. All the casinos we are recommending will not disappoint you.
Above are just a snippet of the extensive list of criteria each and every casino is put through during the review process. Make sure to check out each of the individual reviews for a more in-depth and comprehensive look at why we think the casino is worthy of your time.
FAQ
There’s nothing better than playing your favorite casino game from the comfort of your own home, especially when you’re betting with real money which increases the excitement levels even more! If you’re new to playing with real money at online casino and are a little hesitant, check out the questions below to put any concerns to rest and start enjoying online gambling along with millions of others around the world.
Australian-focused online casinos offer a good number of popular banking options that customers can use to load up their accounts for real money gaming and withdraw their winnings. These options range from credit and debit card options like Visa and MasterCard to online payment services such as Skrill, Neteller, and PayPal. Our casinos are the best paying online casinos in Australia thus the need for great payment options.
Considering the current limbo plaguing the Australian online casino industry, it is best to stick to casinos that are have been proven to be trustworthy, such as the ones we are recommending. At these sites you do not have to worry about security because they are licensed, are regularly audited and are operating legally.
Absolutely. Gambling has been the main form of entertainment for centuries and now with the advent of online casinos, this form of entertainment just got a whole lot more accessible.
Yes! In fact, we highly advise you to do this at any new casino in order for you to get a feel for the game you’re playing before wagering with your own money. Better still, take advantage of the many no deposit bonuses found at many of our recommended casinos so you can experience gambling with real money without risking a single cent of your own money.
Both are good as each other. So, if you have an iPhone, you don’t need to worry about getting an Android device just to experience the best mobile real money gambling. The same is true if you have an Android device. What’s most important is that you’re playing at a credible and reliable casino.