GUIDE TO ONLINE GAMBLING IN QUEENSLAND

Queensland Online Gambling Laws

There is nothing in the state law that restricts residents from playing at internet-based casinos. This means that Queensland residents are free to enjoy real money online gambling. As in the rest of Australia, residents of Queensland must be 18 years or older to participate in any form of gambling.

That gambling is legal for residents doesn’t mean anyone is free to operate a casino out of Queensland. To do so, the operator has to obtain a gambling license. These licenses are only issued to land-based operations, and its not possible to obtain a license for operating an online casino. As such, there are no licensed online casinos operating in or from Queensland.

SOURCE(S):

• Casino Control Act
• Queensland Gambling Laws
• Queensland Government – Department of Justice and Attorney-General

CASINO CONTROL ACT 1982

The Casino Control Act 1982 is the gambling law QLD  that regulates casino operations in Queensland. This law stipulates all current rules in regards to licensing casinos or other other gambling entities. Among other areas the law covers, is the requirements any person or entity operating a casino must fulffill in order to be granted a gambling license. However, since the law came into affect in 1982, it does not cover online gambling.

The main objectives of the law, as stated in the Casino Control Act 1982:

• Ensuring the integrity and fairness of games; and
• ensuring the probity of those involved in the conduct of casino gambling; and
• minimising the potential for harm from casino gambling.

The Casino Control Ammendment Act 1996 adds further stipulations to the gambling law. However, this amendment mainly focuses on payment methods a casino is allowed to accept. Again, online casinos has not been taken into account. Thus, the Queensland gambling law are only concerned with land-based casino operations.

GAMING MACHINE ACT 1991

The he Gaming Machine Act 1991 is a law that dictates how a gaming machine, like a pokie machine, can an cannot function. The goal is to ensure that all gambling machines pay out as they should, and in other words that they are fair. You may have heard of the ‘Poker Machine Payout Laws QLD’ and what this refers to is the Gaming Machine Act 1991.

The Gaming Machine Act 1991 also provides for the issuing of gaming machine licences to clubs and hotels and for the licensing of:

• gaming nominees
• key employees
• repairers
• service contractors
• gaming machine manufacturers
• licensed monitoring operators.

INTERACTIVE GAMBLING (PLAYER PROTECT) ACT 1998

The Interactive Gaming (Player Protection) ACT 1998 is the law that dictates what a gambling operator can and cannot do. The objective of this law is to ensure that the State of Queensland and the community as a whole benefit from gambling activities.

Some of the key aspects the Interactive Gambling (Player Protect) Act 1998 covers is responsible gambling and taxation.

The main objectives of the law, as stated in the Interactive Gambling (Player Protect) Act 1998:

• Ensuring the integrity and fairness of games; and
• ensuring the probity of those involved in the conduct of interactive gambling; and
• minimising the potential for harm from interactive gambling.
• To establish and maintain an appropriate system of regulation and control for interactive gambling;
• to provide protection for players of interactive games;
• to provide a basis for implementing an inter-jurisdictional regulatory scheme for—
  • the reciprocal recognition between participating jurisdictions of licences, authorisations and other administrative acts; and
  • the regulation and control of interactive gambling in the participating jurisdictions on a cooperative basis; and
  • he sharing of tax derived from interactive gambling on an equitable basis.

INTERACTIVE GAMBLING ACT 2001 – FEDERAL

The Federal Interactive Gambling Act, introduced in 2001, took a more countrywide approach and banned Aussie gaming sites from operating in Australia. As mentioned, and as applies to the other states, this hasn’t stopped overseas web-based casinos from taking bets from Queensland casino players and there is nothing in the law that stops them. Check out our full guide to learn more about legal online casinos in Australia.

However, in 2017 the government started clamping down on illegal online casinos targeting Australian players. There is a limit to what the state can do as long as the online casinos operate outside of the Australian jurisdiction. But, issuing hefty fines and IP or DNS blocking of the websites are among the weapons in the governemnts arsenal. As such, many offshore online casinos left the Australian market.