Another Australia Internet Gambling Op Exits Market

New Australia gambling laws have claimed another victim. 888Poker, member of the global online casino gambling giant 888, has officially exited the Australia market.

888Poker made short work of its withdrawal. Late last week, the operator began sending out notices to its Australia internet gambling account holders, informing them that they will no longer have access to 888Poker as of Monday, January 16, 2017.

Players were advised to request a withdrawal of any funds remaining in their accounts. They were also encouraged to unregister from any poker tournaments they may have entered whose dates fall on or after the expiration date of Australian accounts.

Although that date has already come and gone, members are still able to login and access their accounts for the sole purpose of requesting a cash out. It’s not certain how long that access will be granted.

Two Down, How Many To Go?

The popular Australia internet gambling operator isn’t the only one to leave Aussies behind. In late December, Vera&John, a Malta-based online casino gambling website that mostly caters to the Swedish, informed its Australian members that it would no longer be accessible to them, effective no later than January 1, 2017 (aside from the purpose of withdrawing).

Another aspect the two gaming operators have in common is their unwillingness to explicate their departure from Australia. Both iterated ambiguous reasoning, stating only that the decision was based on a re-evaluation of their business models.

It doesn’t take genius to figure out the real motive behind the movement. The only real question is how many other Australia internet gambling sites will follow in their footsteps?

New Australia Gambling Law To Blame

Last year, following the rise of a new government body in the region, officials sprung wide-spread reforms across the nation that included an amendment to abolish unregulated gambling websites from the Australian market.

Simply put: no licence = no access; with licence = no online casino or poker games.

Thus any operator that doesn’t bother to get a licence will have to stop accepting Aussies, or face potential fines that could easily escalate into the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars. At the same time, applying for a licence means they can no longer offer online casino gambling or poker games to Aussies.

When casino and/or poker is the bulk of an operation’s business, there’s not much point in applying for a licence to begin with.

The loss of Vera&John and 888Poker is considered only the start of a massive exodus to come. Many analysts have predicted that PokerStars will be the next victim of the new Australia gambling law.

Amaya Gaming, PokerStars Canadian-based parent company, already revealed that it will pull its operations out of the country if and when the new Australia gambling laws go into effect. Having already suffered the wrath of the US Department of Justice, (a la Black Friday, April 15, 2011), the world’s largest online poker operator wouldn’t dare risk tarnishing its reputation yet again (nor paying a few hundred million more to appease a political lynch mob).

A date has yet to be determined for when the Australia government will vote on the Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill 2016, but having garnered a great deal of support already, there’s little doubt which direction the votes will swing.