Times have been tough for gamblers in Australia recently. It all started with the recent smoking ban. For many smokers,

 

 

the two activities are more or less inseparable. So when they were told that gambling venues were now all smoke free, they simply gave up playing at these places and have turned to online pokies. It isn’t just the smoking though, far from it. Pokies have been big news in Australia for a while now and the public opinion of them has taken a turn for the negative. Harsh betting limits and the stigma now attached to pokies have

combined with the smoking ban to make Australians increasingly stay home to do their gambling. The joke of all of this is ultimately on the Australian government though. Most online casinos aren’t located in Australia, and that means that money spent there can’t be taxed by Australia, and thus tax revenue is down. This means that all of the measures they are putting in place to curb gambling haven’t curbed it at all, it’s just ensured that they get less money from it. People want to gamble, and laws will not change that. Making gambling more difficult will only cause them to find a different way to do it. Some in Australia are saying that if people are going to gamble anyway, their government might as well make some money from it.