The home of the Aussie Millions faces a big blow, similar to America’s “Black Friday” back in 2011.
On March 21st the Australian Senate returned the Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill 2016 to the House of Representatives after voting 46-6 against an amendment that would grant exceptions to online poker from the new restrictions. The House will vote on the bill at their next sitting.
When the bill was originally introduced by Minister for Human Services Alan Tudge its intent was to close the loophole that allowed Australian citizens to place live bets on sports events – something that is otherwise not permitted – through mobile devices, but it also bans any kind of online gambling that is not explicitly legal in Australia – which includes poker.
But some in the Australian poker community still have hope.
"How many times in poker have you seen a player lose a big hand early on and then come back and win?" Joseph Del Duce, head of the Australian Online Poker Alliance told pokernews.com. "This happens all the time and our campaign is no different. Poker players are amazingly resilient people. Giving up is not the answer.We still have a long way until the final table so it is important that we all stay positive and focused on the job at hand. We know that this decision has hurt and saddened a lot of the Australian online poker community. Our message to you is this: We may have lost the battle, but we will win the war."
There seems to be some chance of things turning around, for example recently a senator who is for the bill stated that he thinks it’s nonsense that poker is in the gambling category, and not regarded as a game of skill.
What could be an effective strategy is Australian poker fans contacting their local representatives and try to convince them to vote against the bill.
