Red Fox Lotto and We Love Lotto have now been blocked by the media and communications watchdog for Australia. This is the latest crackdown that has affected multiple un-licensed gambling operations that accept Australian players despite legality issues.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) unearthed information in a recent press release, stating:
“We Love Lotto and Red Fox Lotto are both operating illegally in Australia, meaning there are no consumer safeguards in place for players…Blocking illegal offshore sites protects Australians from potentially dodgy operators, where there is little or no recourse if things go wrong. Lottery services that are licensed in Australia and operating legally have important safeguards that consumers expect”
Operations to stop Australians from gambling online first became a reality over 20 years ago. Whilst the Interactive Gambling Act has been in place since 2001, this is the first time that any lottery operations have been aimed at through the sights of the ACMA.
The lottery websites in question were allowing Australian residents to remotely purchase tickets to overseas lotteries, with taxes going to other parts of the world such as the USA with the sale of Powerball tickets and Europe with the EuroMillions draw.
Looming Fines Aren’t Stopping Some
The Australian authorities have ramped up their efforts to stop this kind of gambling, with the addition of website blocking iGaming services since November 2019. Since then over 330 “illegal gambling websites” have been blocked by internet service providers (ISPs).
More than 86% of these “illicit” providers have now abandoned the Australian market. With this figure increasing since a formal warning was released claiming that any operating un-licensed iGaming domains could be fined up to $1.1 million for each day they continue to serve Australian customers.
The Asia-Pacific iGaming market is still estimated to be worth around the $70 billion mark, with interest from Australian punters surging in recent times despite the efforts of such restrictions. This is thought to be because of many stay of home Covid-19 orders in the country as well as iGaming platforms using services such as Cloudfare to shield customers’ registrations from any regulator’s watchful eyes.
It seems that as long as some providers that are based outside any kind of jurisdiction of the Australian authorities exist, they will carry on operating and looking to get players from a country that is very financially viable, and the time-old game of cat and mouse continues.
If you want to find out more about the USA lottery, we have built guides that include information on the most popular draws, the biggest wins, and the history of the games in various states across America.
Based in California, James William writes about golf, tennis, UFC and the (sometimes complicated) world of betting on sports. A big lover of live poker, James also takes care of casino reviews for Vegas-Odds.com.
