
Australians have always been known for their gambling habit with over 80% of the population engaging in at least one activity of online gambling between online sports betting and online casino games.
However, as soon as the coronavirus hit Australia hard, online gambling rose by 67% in the country and as it rose, illegal online casinos flourished as well.
Rise of Illegal Online Casinos
With the coronavirus locking down all the trusted land-based casinos in Australia, many had to resort to online casinos for solace. At the same time, there were no sports activities to give Aussies an alternative to online casino gambling.
This lead to vast Australian punters to flock to online casino games so as to find solace for their gambling activities. However, as they did illegal online casinos made sure to take advantage of this as well.
Knowing that Aussies would resort to any online casino that they could find on the web, they managed to mask themselves as trusted online casinos. By so doing, they managed to swindle Aussies of millions of their real money.
Statistics show that Australia lost over $400 million to illegal online casinos in 2019, this leading to states being deprived of at least $100 million in tax revenue. In addition, in 2018, Aussies lost at least $25 billion to poker machines both legal and illegal.
Online gambling revenue continues to rise, however the government fears that Aussies are falling prey to illegal online casinos and illegal online gambling sites. With online gambling spending rising over 110% at the end of April.
The government fears that Aussies keep falling prey to rogue online casino sites. That is why the Australian Communications and Media Authority recently ordered service providers to block 52 illegal online casino websites.
How to Find a Trusted Online Casino
Web searches for keywords in the online casino sector keep growing with searches for words like online pokes rising from 12 100 in February 2020 to 40 500 in April of the same year. And Joka Room one of the trusted real money sites doubled its 606 407 visitors in Feb to over 1.2 million in April. This is all according to data collected from SEMrush a leading online data analytical tool.
However, finding a trusted online casino goes beyond just searching for words like online pokies in a search engine. There are several other things that players have to consider if they do not want to fall prey to illegal online casinos.
Some of the aspects of trusted online casinos that Aussies have to consider are:
- The casino operating license
- The customer service and support team
- History of the casino
- The owner of the online casino
- Banking methods used at the casino
- Mobile casino application
Players need to make sure to check all the above-mentioned items to make sure that they are not playing at illegal online casinos. To do so, players can read online casino player reviews before they decide to play the casino site.
In addition, players need to check for the bonuses and promotions, if they seem too good to be true, you need to look into them further to see that you will not get scammed.
Conclusion
Vast numbers of Aussies are gambling with each passing day with statistics showing that 33% of every 1000 people gambling each day. And from that number every 1 in 5 people play online casino games. That is why Aussies need to make sure that they are careful of the sites they are playing at to make sure that they don’t fall prey to illegal online casinos.
Illegal Online Casinos FAQs
Are online casinos illegal in Australia?
How do I gamble legally online in Australia?
Where can I find a trusted online casino in Australia?
How do I spot illegal online casinos in Australia?
Is it safe to play at online casinos in Australia?