For years, gambling has been among the biggest branches of entertainment on a global scale. Over the last decade, playing traditional gambling games, such as roulette, blackjack, poker or slots machines has marked a significant increase thanks to new trends in technology and pop culture that have been adopted by gambling operators.
Furthermore, the latest advance of technology has brought the traditional practice of people just going to a land-based casino gambling establishment to a whole new level, taking the experience online with a massive variety of online gambling services.
Through the years, Australia has remained one of the countries with traditions in gambling and whose citizens recognise gambling as one of their favourite types of entertainment. Currently, there are millions of active gamblers in the country, and gambling games remain a favourite pastime for individuals of different age groups and occupations. According to reports, the country’s gambling industry is worth tens of billions of dollars every year, with local people spending massive amounts of various forms of gambling, not to mention the fact that Australia has been a popular gambling destination attracting gambling enthusiasts from all over the world.
Australians are widely known for their love of local poker machines, also known as pokies, which have been one of the most significant sources of gambling revenues in the country, but also a form of gambling that has been strongly criticised because of the strong negative impact it could inflict on people’s lives and financial stability.
Australian Government Adopts Stricter Approach towards the Gambling Sector
In the last few years, however, the national Government of Australia has started bringing some changes to life when it comes to its legislative and regulatory approach to the sector. After some controversies and practices that had not been received well by the authorities, some changes in the Government’s regulation of the practice have occurred.
As previously reported, gambling regulators in the country are planning to take all the necessary steps to prevent any irregularities or gambling legislation breaches in the future, so they have been unveiling stricter regulatory rules for the local gambling industry. According to analysts, the upcoming months and years will see a significant increase in regulatory oversight, which is expected to result in even more serious scrutiny over the Australian gambling sector.
For the time being, both gambling and financial regulatory bodies across the country are investigating the activities of a number of casinos. The country’s financial watchdog, the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) has started a probe into gambling operators all over the country and shows no intention of stopping until their mission is achieved.
As AUSTRAC has announced, there has been evidence that some casinos have been operating in a way that violates gambling and anti-money laundering legislation. These findings have pushed the financial regulatory body to unveil plans for closer investigation of the companies, some of which are among the largest gambling groups and conglomerates in the country.
As a whole, gambling has been one of the most difficult industries to operate and regulate not only in Australia but also on a global scale. Often, gambling and casino services have been associated with criminal activity of different types, including tax evasion, money laundering, corruption, etc., which may harm the country’s reputation. In order to protect the integrity of the industry and its customers, the gambling sector in Australia is now heading to some significant changes, with the new regulations only considered the beginning of the new era in the gambling regulations in the country.
Casino Operators in Australia Could Experience Revenue Decline, Analysts Say
At a time when the local watchdogs are still intensifying their grip around Australian casino companies, gambling operators have unveiled expectations that their revenue may be subject to a considerable decline. According to the findings of several surveys, casino operators could be forced to invest more money in compliance initiatives, not to mention they could be required to stop offering some products and services that have been found harmful for their customers in one way or another. In addition, some casinos featuring services that differ from regular casino games could be forced to self-regulate with more care and diligence.
According to some experts, certain elements of casino operations may actually result in negative consequences to the customers, so the Australian Government and local regulators really need to think about how to prevent such harm to be inflicted on people. However, analysts believe that such actions would have a detrimental impact on the ability of most casino and gambling operators to remain profitable by generating enough revenue and maintain their margins, which would make them experience considerable losses or could get them out of operation.
However, no matter how big these changes seem to be on their own, the increasing involvement of gambling regulatory bodies in the operations of gambling and casino companies in Australia is not the only factor that could affect the new changes brought to the local gambling industry. For example, Fitch Ratings’ analysts have explained that various other factors, such as new restrictions on the movement of funds, the coronavirus pandemic, as well as the tense relations with China, will also play an important role when it comes to the reduction of the Australian casinos’ revenue.
Furthermore, local casinos’ VIP rooms, which are targeting affluent foreign visitors, have been experiencing a lot of trouble since March 2020 due to the closure of international borders. Such gambling services have been very much reliant on rich tourists, some of whom have been travelling to Australia with the intention to gamble in local casinos. Unfortunately for operators, these services have been almost entirely out of business for about a year and a half.
- Author
Daniel Williams
