澳大利亚实施新的线下赌场视频扑克法律(2)

　　译文：

　　AUSTRALIA TO IMPLEMENT NEW VIDEO POKER LAWS FOR LAND CASINOS

　　The Australian government is preparing to modify its gambling laws referring to land based video poker machines and games. A new legislation draft has just been introduced to the Parliament and is expected to be approved soon.

　　Australia intends to modify its existing gambling laws but this time the ones that refer to land-based gambling. A newly introduced bill is aiming to impose a stricter control over video poker machines and gaming clubs running in the country.

　　According to the new draft, video poker machine owners will have to offer players the choice to previously establish the maximum limit they intend to spend during a gaming session. This rule aims to prevent players from losing very large sums of money in a single gaming session and is mostly aimed at players with a gambling addiction.

　　The legislation draft also says that gaming machines will from now on have to display a warning message each time a player accesses them. ATMs located in gaming clubs would also be limited to a withdrawal of $250/day per person. According to the bill, gaming clubs and land-based casinos will have to implement these changes by the end of 2013.

　　Initially the legislation draft also included the provision that players could only bet $1 per round but this idea was abandoned in the end. Such a rule would have made video poker extremely unpopular in the country and would have resulted in huge losses for operators.

　　At the same time while announcing these changes, the government also revealed that it would soon launch a study that would focus on the impact of social media on gambling activities. The government research intends to find out if gambling advertisement on social media could determine minors to participate in gambling activities.

　　While the government is debating the new rules that would govern the land based video poker market, online gambling continues to grow rapidly in Australia. The biggest growing online gambling segment in the country is sports betting.

　　As a consequence, several European online gambling companies have already established a base of operations in the country. Some of the best performing European online betting companies in Australia are bet365, Paddy Power and Sportingbet.

　　Sportingbet's great performance in Australia has even determined UK market leader William Hill Plc. to place a bid for the takeover of the company. William Hill together with GVC Holding is prepared to pay as much as GBP 530 million to take over all of Sportingbet's operations.