888poker has ultimately decided to leave the Aussie market for good in order to avoid a potential US$5 million fine, that is, if the new gaming law will successfully be implemented in the country. 888poker players in Australia have been recently informed that they shall no longer be allowed to play on their website starting January 16, 2017.
Here's what their email message entails, "Following a b[...] Read more » 888poker exits Australia
Joined: Mar '11
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 55 (M)
Posts: 7371
It is quite surprising that they have pulled out of Australia. There must have been a very big market there and i am surprised that they did not apply for a license to continue trading
888 seems very greedy room ... apparently economists felt the benefit of the players of Australia and license fee must be greater than or equal to about ... of course for Australian players is a very sad event, but the rooms very much and I'm sure that ini find a replacement
Joined: Dec '12
Location: New Zealand
Age: 33 (M)
Posts: 504
good for the players as a asian based poker room could make a play for oceania. also its only triple8 at this stage - glad they dont count nz as a state.
if they did continue they promos would be s**t like stars and party to recoup the costs of the fines.
Joined: Mar '14
Location: Japan
Age: 49 (M)
Posts: 8946
This is sad news for players residing in Australia. Does this effectively ban all online gambling activities? It is very likely that PokerStars and other sites follow suit. All I can say is, good luck, have a great life, everyone. Life is really quite short.
Edited by Tony_MON7ANA (17 January 2017 @ 15:28 GMT)
Joined: May '08
Location: Lithuania
Age: 39 (M)
Posts: 10090
great great, another one down the drain... i guess the laws will be reevaluated once more when there is no operator left in the country and the estimated income from licences is roughly $0. then there will be news about 888poker entering the aussie market... life swings life pendulum- at first 888 entered australia, now they are exiting, after a while probably they be entering once more...
Joined: Mar '09
Location: Greece
Age: 47 (F)
Posts: 14136
The global market continues to shrink with these laws. Bad for the players. It only benefits, the governments and the big local companies, casinos etc, that they are after the missed piece of that pie. And here it seems they arent done yet. They are talking for new additional laws.
888poker's are practicaly not paying license in any country either where they have goverment issued license system so its not like this move was some unexpected happening which nobody saw coming. They are a cheap a$$ company.
Joined: Feb '11
Location: Romania
Age: 34 (M)
Posts: 478
you may be right bowie , even though you can t ignore the fact that is one of the best at same point .Most of money wi ve withdraw from them . Probably aussies are gone play at 888.Au or maybe they are really gone frome them What i also may know(probably mistaken) is that 888 is an UK company in gibraltar . So Uk those days is a breExit situation ,don t know ...
Joined: Apr '09
Location: Australia
Age: 40 (M)
Posts: 6483
Stars have also announced publically they are going to withdraw from the Australian market to if/when this passes. All the legit players will. Otherwise they'll be fined $5M/day. They have no choice.
But please see my recent thread - there is still time to act against this bill!!!
------------ As far as I am aware - and I've been following this for a while and actively been lobbying to my government. There is no plans for any .AU sites. They want to remove online gaming, completely.
There will even be ramifications for eGaming - like actually PC Gamers that take part in tournaments with cash prizes.
------------ There's a lot of movement to try and save it (poker - to online casinos) but unfortunately it's hard to battle against the lobbying power of major land-based casinos.
------------ See my thread here, for things you can do to help (especially if you're Australian, but even if you are not):
Joined: May '08
Location: Lithuania
Age: 39 (M)
Posts: 10090
so what you're saying jess is that it's the brick and mortar shack's owners that are trying hard to get rid of their pesky virtual competitors, well this is interesting twist, i was always thinking that it's just pure greed of the politician who think that they found another way to increase the budget income for them potentially to decrease it later themselves...
Joined: Apr '09
Location: Australia
Age: 40 (M)
Posts: 6483
Posted by pochui: so what you're saying jess is that it's the brick and mortar shack's owners that are trying hard to get rid of their pesky virtual competitors, well this is interesting twist, i was always thinking that it's just pure greed of the politician who think that they found another way to increase the budget income for them potentially to decrease it later themselves...
