Australia's Federal Government wants to ban SMS casino |
February 2, 2006 - The Federal Government is being urged to clamp down on a new scheme in which people can bet by sending SMS messages on their mobile phones.
An Adelaide-based company known as 'txt2-bet' is encouraging punters to sign onto their plan which allows users to place bets on racing and sports events 24 hours a day.
South Australian 'No Pokies' MP Nick Xenophon has written to the Commonwealth demanding amendments to the Interactive Gambling Act to stop the scheme.
Mr Xenophon says text message betting is likely to put more young people at risk of becoming problem gamblers.
"The promoters of this scheme in their own information on their website, talk about 24 hours a day, seven days a week punting," he said.
"That you can place a bet while you are at work or at a family gathering, I think indicates that it will lead to more problem gambling."
He has written to Federal Communications Minister Helen Coonan asking for the government to intervene.
He says the scheme will put young people at risk.
"It will lead to more problem gambling because of its very easy access and we know from a Productivity Commission report on gambling, that the more accessibility the form of gambling is, the greater the risk of problem gambling," he said.
But the director of the service Keith Boerholm says the scheme is safer for users than other betting methods because punters receive an audit trail of their transactions.
"And it's debit based, in other words there's no credit," he said.
"The man or the woman has to put money on the card in order to use it.
"And from our experience from the people using it now, from what we can see it hasn't increased their punting habit one bit." |
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Source: ABC.net.au |
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