Aussies Receiving Phone Inducements To Gamble

The Age, an Australian newspaper, has reported that online casinos based on the other side of the world are telephoning Australian gamblers and offering them inducements to bet. The paper named 888.com as one of the companies and said that they believed this to be illegal.

The practice was discovered this week after the paper logged on to several internet poker websites to research online poker. The Victoria Justice Department agreed that the practice may be illegal.

Less than 24 hours after the paper visited one of the sites, they received a call from Pacific Poker offering money if the paper would return to the site and sign up. "We noticed that you tried to log on to our site and were unsuccessful. If you would like to come back we can sort out any technical problems and we will offer you a bonus of an extra 35 percent on top of any amount deposited in a gambling account."

The Federal Interactive Gambling Act of Australia forbids internet casinos from advertising in Australia or from taking bets from Australians. Despite these laws, Australians continue to bet millions of dollars. A spokeswoman for the Victorian Department of Justice said it was pretty likely that the telephone approaches were illegal. "Victoria is of the view that the Commonwealth needs to take the lead in this matter," she said.

A spokeswoman for Communications Minister Helen Coonan said while the government was concerned about problem gambling, it had no plans to introduce laws banning the transfer of funds to online casinos. "We do not believe enough Australians are betting online to make such a measure necessary."

Pacific Poker is based in Gibraltar and owned by the 888.com - a multibillion-dollar online gambling entity. 888 was forced to cease all operations in the US in October last year after the US Government enacted tough new laws banning financial transfers connected to online gambling.

Problem gambling experts overstated the case, commenting, "We know that online gambling is dangerous - you can lose your home without even leaving home."

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