Victoria Online Casinos

Update 2017: The Australian Government has now outlawed online casinos in the country. This means that operators are not licensed nor are they legally entitled to offer gambling services to Australian residents. Any sites that still accept Australian players are in direct contravention of government laws. Players funds may not be safe with these operators as they have no means of retrieving their funds in the case of any legal disputes. VegasSlotsOnline.com does not endorse any of these casinos and strongly recommends that Aussies avoid them until online gaming is regulated in the country. Please visit our casinos by country page to check the regulation of other localities. 

The below article has been left online for informational purposes only. 

The most densely populated state in Australia, Victoria is the home to Melbourne, the second-largest city in the country. Located in the south-eastern portion of the Australian mainland (just north of Tasmania), Victoria is not only a major destination for tourists, but is also known as the sporting capital of Australia: it hosted the 1956 Summer Olympics, is home to the famed Melbourne Cricket Ground, and hosts the Australian Football League’s Grand Final each season.

Victoria is also home to a variety of gaming activities. The most famous of these is the Crown Casino, the largest casino in all of the Southern Hemisphere. The state also plays home to a very active racing industry, which (for the time being, at least), includes greyhound racing along with the more common and less controversial horse races. There’s also plenty of online gambling that can be enjoyed here, though in some cases you may have to seek out overseas sites in order to enjoy it.

Crown at Centre of Gaming Industry

If you want to talk about gambling in Victoria, there is one very natural place to start: the Crown Casino and Entertainment Complex, located on the Yarra Promenade in Melbourne. First opened at a temporary location in 1994, the Crown was opened in its current complex in 1997. The word “complex” is particularly apt when talking about this resort: at over 500,000 square metres, the facility is the size of two city blocks, and is the largest such resort south of the equator.

Owned by James Packer’s Crown Limited, the resort includes a massive casino that features a wide variety of table games, as well as 3,500 pokies and one of the biggest poker rooms in the region, which has hosted by the Aussie Millions and the World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific. There are also restaurants, bars, retail shopping outlets, and three hotel towers that combine to offer more than 1,600 rooms.

Outside of this one major complex, there are no other casinos available in Victoria. However, that’s hardly where the gaming opportunities end for residents of visitors. Since 1992, pokies have been offered in the state, regulated under the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation. Both clubs and hotels are allowed to feature poker machines among their offerings, with a cap of about 30,000 machines being allowed in total across the state (including those located within the Crown complex).

Racing is also a longstanding activity in Victoria just like it has in Queensland, dating back to at least 1838, when the first official races were held at Batman’s Hill in Melbourne. Since 1864, the industry has largely been organized through the Victorian Racing Club, though it is overseen by the organization known as Racing Victoria. Today, Victoria is considered the centre of racing in Australia, hosting major races at Flemington, Caulfield, Sandown, Mornington and many other tracks. Important races include the Australian Cup – the richest horse race in the country – and the Australian Guineas, both of which are held at Flemington. Greyhound racing is also popular in the state, though the industry has faced severe controversies in recent years that have led to forthcoming bans in other states.

Lottery games are also prevalent in the state, as they are throughout Australia. Tattersall’s (also known as the Tatts Group, or simply Tatts) runs the lottery here on behalf of the state Government, providing access to both state and nationwide lotto drawings. Some of the most popular and highest-paying games include Saturday Lotto, Oz Lotto, and Powerball. Most of these games are offered under the national lottery brand known as “the Lott.”

Interactive Gambling Act Sets Guidelines for Online Play

When it comes to online casinos in Australia, the rules were set in 2001, when the Government passed the Interactive Gambling Act. This bill has set policy on all forms of Internet betting ever since, though its age has left many clamouring for an update that better reflects the industry as it exists today.

The main crux of the bill is a ban on all real-money online interactive gambling in Australia. Specifically, it makes it a crime to offer such games, even if the operator is not located in Australia themselves. On the other hand, it does not criminalize simply making bets of playing on such sites; this is important to note, as it means that Australians do not need to fear that they themselves are doing anything illegal by placing bets, even if they choose to do so through offshore companies that aren’t supposed to be taking customers from the country.

However, the overall situation of online gambling in Australia is a bit more complicated than this would suggest. For one thing, the IGA did not ban all forms of Internet betting, and some forms are in fact licensed and regulated by the Government. Most notably, sports betting is allowed to be offered online, provided that the firm offering it is licensed to do so. In recent years, traditional Australian firms have been joined by some of Europe’s most prevalent bookies in this regulated market, giving Aussie punters plenty of options for placing bets on sporting events taking place in Australia and around the world.

The only restriction placed on these bookmakers is that they may not take in-play bets – that is, those that are being placed on a game or match that is already underway – over the Internet. These bets are allowed in person or over the phone, but they are considered “interactive,” and as such, are prohibited because of the IGA. While some operators have found ways to work around this restriction on mobile phones (using apps to technically place a call and thus fulfil the “by phone” requirement), it is likely that these loopholes will be closed in the near future.

Lottery operators can also offer tickets online, and this has become commonplace throughout the country. However, like the bookmakers, these sites are prevented from offering anything that qualifies as an interactive game. In this case, that means that there are no instant win or “scratch off” games allowed through the web-based sales portals.

When it comes to casino games or poker, nothing at all is allowed – but that doesn’t mean it can’t be found in Victoria. Many foreign companies, confident that there is little the Australian Government will do to stop them, still offer these and other games to players throughout the country. As we mentioned earlier, there is nothing illegal about playing on these sites, even if the operators themselves are clearly violating the IGA. This has made them very popular among Aussies who enjoy the idea of playing pokies, blackjack, poker, and other games from the comfort of their homes, as there are no regulated alternatives for them to choose from. Thankfully, many of these foreign sites are run by reputable operators that are well-regarded throughout the world, giving Australians plenty of excellent options to choose from.

Racing Industry Faces Questions, While IGA May See Overhaul

One of Australia’s hottest issues at the moment is the future of greyhound racing. The sport has long been on the decline throughout the world, and years of controversy recently came to a head after ABC’s Four Corners aired an expose that showed rampant abuse of dogs by owners and trainers.

That has led to several states at least considering the possibility of banning the sport altogether. The NSW Government, for instance, has decided that the industry will be shut down throughout their jurisdiction starting in July 2017, and the ACT has given similar notice.

But, at least for the time being, it doesn’t appear that Victoria will be following suit. Recently, Martin Pakula, the Racing Minister for Victoria, said that despite several inquiries there was no recommendation from anyone in the state that suggested the greyhound industry needed to end. However, he noted that the racing world was on notice, and Greyhound Racing Victoria has pledged to implement a number of recommendations from those same inquiries, including efforts to improve the welfare of the animals before, during, and after their racing careers.

On the national level, it appears all but certain that there will soon be major changes coming to how the Government deals with online gambling. After a review of the IGA and the current status of the gaming industry, officials have made several recommendations that the government appears likely to implement. For instance, not only will in-play betting remain illegal over the web, but the loopholes that some companies were utilizing to get around this ban will be closed.

Meanwhile, the Government also seems poised to crack down on overseas operators who offer online casino games in the country. While they may not be able to directly go after these operators, there are other steps they are prepared to take, such as forcing ISPs to block access to gaming websites that aren’t licensed to operate in Australia. They could also take steps against directors from these firms, perhaps going as far as banning them from entering the country.

Because of the uncertainty about which of the recommendations the Government will be able to implement and the details of how they will interpret them, it’s hard to say exactly what the Victorian Internet gambling landscape will look like in a few months, let alone a few years. But while there may be plenty of changes around the margins, we don’t expect any dramatic shifts, and most betting options should still be available to players for the foreseeable future.