The Australian government has announced that it intends to amend the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 in order to prevent users from depositing money with credit cards at online casinos.
The intention was announced by Michelle Rowland, the Communications Minister, along with Amanda Rishworth, the country’s Social Services Minister. The government’s aim is to basically bring online casinos in line with land-based casinos when it comes to regulations regarding the use of credit cards.
Land-based casinos in Australia have already limited the use of credit cards for the purchase of gambling chips, and some banks have limited such transactions by their own accord.
Bank Australia for instance, the tenth-largest company in the Australian mutual or cooperative banking sector, has banned all credit card transactions for gambling and gaming purposes since December 2020.
Moreover, The Australian Banking Association has released a report in 2020 regarding the use of credit cards for gambling transactions and the conclusions of that report supported prohibiting credit card-based gambling.