Country’s online gambling ministers to meet amid credit card crackdown

afr.com:

The government says it will convene a meeting with the state, territory and federal MPs responsible for online gambling before the end of the year, as it moves to ban the use of credit cards for online wagering.

As The Australian Financial Review reported in April, the government has brought forward legislation to ban online betting companies from accepting credit products and digital currencies.

Australia has the highest annual gambling losses per person in the world. 

A new amendment to the Interactive Gambling Act, expected to be introduced on Wednesday, will expand the powers of the media regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, to punish breaches.

Companies that don’t enforce the ban will face fines of up to $234,750 for any breach.

“It’s as simple as this: people should not be betting with money they do not have,” communications minister Michelle Rowland said in a joint statement with social services minister Amanda Rishworth.

Australia has the highest annual gambling losses per person in the world – $1300 per adult, totalling more than $25 billion – fuelled by high poker machine use and online gambling.

Nearly three-quarters of Australian adults have gambled once in the past year, the Australian Gambling Research Centre says, and the estimated prevalence of “problem gambling” doubled to 1.23 per cent between 2010-11 and 2019.

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland: “People should not be betting with money they do not have,” 

Problem gambling is three times more common among interactive or internet gamblers than traditional land-based gamblers.

Until now, gamblers could use credit cards to deposit money directly into online and app-based betting accounts, despite the form of payment being