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Visa Objects to Policing Online Gambling
by:HP
Friday, May 09, 2003
Illegal online gambling has become so rife in Australia that the Government is taking a leaf out of some useless US policy. The blind really are leading the blind.
Over in America lawmakers have bullied banks and credit card companies into rejecting payments associated with illegal online gambling. Pay-Pal was one of the first to be targeted. Essentially this utterly passes the buck from the lawmakers onto financial institutions that become responsible for policing insane laws said lawmakers have no idea how to implement.
Fortunately, Visa has a few reasonable excuses that might stop the motion in Australia. For example, it’s impossible to stop payments on illegal gambling. They could also have gone for: there’s a whole range of e-payment alternatives or just plain, why should we?
The Australian Bankers Association also had a brush with wisdom arguing that it was 'neither feasible nor appropriate' for banks to enforce the ban on online gambling, or bear its cost. In fact they’re making it as clear as black and white that it doesn’t have anything to do with them: 'It is the ABA's view that the burden of prevention of illegal interactive gambling and of related problem gambling outcomes should not fall on banks.'
In response both the NSW Government and the Australian Bookmakers Association insisted that banks be forced to stop all overseas payments and foot the bills. They’re just not listening to each other. The NSW government has even called on the Commonwealth and threatens to act if the Federal government does not.
Of course it’s not the banks duty to point out that the use of credit cards to monitor transactions is quite useful in a country where online gambling is legalised and regulated. Fraudulent or underage gambling is a little easier to spot with credit cards than with alternative payment methods used to get round short sighted gambling laws. But then the Australian government doesn’t seem to be considering the option of legalising online gambling all that wholeheartedly.
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