Officials at Lottoland Australia are promising to soldier on in Australia’s digital lottery wars, despite a recent government ban on their services. While they’re striking a defiant tone in the face of a dark situation, is there really much that Lottoland can do now that the ban is the law of the land?
Lottoland’s battle cry comes as the Australian government approved the Interactive Gambling Act Amendment (Lottery Betting) Bill 2018. That bill bars Australians from placing wagers on the outcome of foreign and domestic lotteries. It’s a bill that all but bulldozes Lottoland’s business model and is a gift from the Gods for Australian newsagents, who saw Lottoland as a major competitor to traditional lottery vendors.
Australia’s Minister for Communications Mitch Fifield touted the ban’s benefits to newsagents in a statement saying:
This legislation will also protect the more than 4,000 small businesses including newsagents, pharmacies and community clubs and pubs across the country who operate long-standing, recreational betting service.
Now that the digital lottery ban is enshrined in Australian law, Lottoland officials don’t really have a lot of options for fighting it, but they are considering challenging the ban in court. They’re also hoping that Australian officials will undermine the credibility of their arch nemesis, the Australian Newsagents Association, used false information to rally the public around their cause. (Specifically, Lottoland claims that the newsagents deliberately exaggerated the number of small businesses that were impacted by digital lotteries.)
Whatever the company plans to do, they’ll need to start doing it pretty quickly. The Australian ban on digital lotteries, and the death sentence for Lottoland Australia, goes into effect in six months.