A press release from ALNA yesterday:
Turnbull Government banishes lotto betting from Australia – delivering for small business and consumers
Australia’s national industry body for newsagents welcomes the passing of the Interactive Gambling Amendment (Lottery Betting) Bill, to protect consumers and assist small businesses that sell lottery products
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Australia, 28 June 2018: Australia’s national industry body for newsagents and lottery agents, the Australian Lottery and Newsagents Association (ALNA), is pleased that the Turnbull government has successfully legislated an amendment to the Interactive Gambling Bill, which will make lotto betting prohibited in Australia by early 2019.
Adam Joy, CEO of the Australian Lottery and Newsagents Association said, “The Interactive Gambling Amendment (Lottery Betting) Bill 2018 was recently unanimousy passed by the House of Representatives, and today it has been passed with an overwhelming majority in the Senate. This will protect Australia from synthetic lotteries and will bring important new consumer protections by closing the loophole that lotto betting sites have been operating out of.
“I want to acknowledge the government and particularly the Minister for Communications Mitch Fifield who has had carriage of this important Bill and whose leadership has seen this loophole closed. I would also like to thank Labor’s Shadow Minister for Communications, Michelle Rowland MP, for supporting this bill and listening to local newsagents and consulting widely. Lastly and importantly, we want to acknowledge and thank One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson, who put this issue on the agenda and who has supported enabling legislation to amend the Interactive Gambling Act to banish lotto betting from Australia.
“ALNA has been very firm in our stance against lotto betting for a long time. That’s because it confuses Australian consumers, it damages newsagents’ businesses, and it is an irresponsible and harmful model. The lotto betting model encourages highly repetitive bets that may risk problem gambling, promote higher risk spending, and may be misleading regarding the winnings available. This increases risk and it comes at a significant cost to state taxes, and to local family-run small businesses – that employ locally, pay Australian taxes and support the local community.
“Given the dishonest and divisive campaign run to try and prevent the passing of this Bill, we are pleased to know that there will be an end to misleading businesses trying to
denigrate and use newsagents for their own advantage. We represent over 2,000 small business members and have continually received overwhelming feedback from them that they are concerned about the tactics of these online bookmakers. And the Australian Lottery and Newsagents Association is pleased that their voices have been heard. We now call on all synthetic lottery operators to do the right thing by Australians and cease offering these products immediately.
“Lotteries don’t operate in a free market – most gambling products haven’t existed in a free market for decades. Arguing about monopolies is very convenient for online bookmakers who don’t want to have to follow the usual rules, but gambling products aren’t like other products, which is why governments regulate their access to consumers. Lotto betting bookmakers currently operate only because of a loophole that exists in current regulations.
“The Federal Interactive Gambling Act already made it illegal to sell a scratchy online and play a poker machine online, and the federal government moved last year to further strengthen the act with an amendment to ban online in-play betting on sports and banning credit betting, as well as making it illegal for unlicensed operators to offer online poker. And today, we welcome the passing of an amendment that closes a further loophole in the Act by banning online betting on all lottery outcomes.
“The Australian Lottery and Newsagents Association will continue to provide strong advocacy for our members, including to help newsagents receive better deals on the products that they are legally permitted to sell,” concluded Mr Joy.
The Australian Lottery and Newsagents Association is the only national association representing newsagents and lottery agents in every state and territory of Australia, and are the only newsagents’ association with a national ACCC collective bargaining authorisation. As such, it is the only association that is negotiating nationally with Tatts/Tabcorp for further improvements.
ALNA represents over 2,000 small businesses, mostly family owned, who rely on the sale of official government regulated lottery products.
On behalf of those businesses and their staff, the ALNA thanks the government for its efforts to bring forward this important reform to protect Australian consumers and to support these Australian small businesses.
Footnote: I’ve not been asked to publish this. I am not an ALNA member and have no commercial relationship with ALNA. I say this because of some who love ill-informed gossip in our channel.
Looks like that silly old fuddy duddy in the cardigan behind the lotto counter might have done a touch of arse whopping.
Its a pitty they are giving Lottoland so long before they have to shut down (6 months or so per the legislation) rather than pushing them out of business sooner.
if they dont stop tatts on line it seems to make very little difference to our channel
So is it all lotteries including overseas lotteries, or just betting on Australian lotteries?
So is it all lotteries including overseas lotteries, or just betting on Australian lotteries?
Lottoland chief executive Luke Brill denied the changes signalled the end. Mr Brill said they wouldn’t come into force until 2019 and the company was “well advanced” in exploring other ways to continue delivering choice to 700,000 registered Australian punters.
“We are here to stay,” he said in a statement on Thursday.
“We will continue to innovate and adapt so that we can continue to provide our customers with the type of exciting and innovative products they have come to expect from us over the past two years.”
Last month, Mr Brill said the company would consider a High Court challenge if the bill passed Parliament.
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/lottoland-comes-out-swinging-after-government-passes-ban-on-lotto-betting/news-story/b34577d5cfb0751319218c2c893240b0
I suspect the mantra in Gibraltar at the moment is “ALNA gotta go”.
Imagine if they start litigation against those who sought to destroy it over some libel or such. I wonder who has deeper pockets?
Factory Worker a Lottoland front.
Good win for Tatts/tabcorp,make very little difference to us folk retailing their product when inevitably thats who will cannibalize us in the end.
This Lottery Betting Bill is just for Lottoland?
We need Tatts online to stop. That will bring business to our shops.
Susan, the bill will have no impact on the online sales of lottery products by Tatts and their licencees.
What we really need is a ban on all online gambling. Until then, believe me, Lottoland isn’t going anywhere.
Think about it this way. Lottoland has 700,000 customers in Australia, and a bet on the US Powerball costs $5 so imagine how much money they’re making every week if they just got $5 from each of those customers.
Now think about it this way. Lottoland encourages problem gambling because they have several lotteries you can bet on every day, and they always have specials (e.g. if you get 3 lines of US Powerball then you get 1 free). Imagine how much money they’re making every week if they get each of their customers to place a bet every single day.
Lottoland isn’t going anywhere until we get a ban on all online gambling – believe me.
“What we really need is a ban on all online gambling.”
Yeah agreed. We also need to get rid of online banking because in some towns banks are closing down.
Govt. Banned Lottoland because they were not getting any TAX from the model.
Don’t think for a minute that it had anything to do with on line betting perse or newsagents complaints.
Tax GST is now to applied to on line international purchases not because it’s hurting B&M store sales it’s because Govt. is missing out on revenue.
Graeme your comment on taxes is spot on.
It is also interesting to see the change in regulatory attitudes by Politicians who oversee and hence control the regulatory attitudes since privatisation. They now allow credit betting using credit cards. The system is in my view now stacked more against the player and hence better for the Tatts as the owner.