One in seven Australians who place online bets on sporting events are also gambling illegally at internet casinos, a new study has revealed.
About a quarter of the gamblers surveyed by the director of the ANU Gambling Research Centre, Jan McMillen, admitted that they sometimes gambled more than they had planned, and nearly 5 per cent believed that they had a "serious gambling problem".
Lasseters, the nation's only legal online casino, open only to non-Australians, accepts 18 million bets a month - 90 per cent of those on poker machines. Its customer base has grown more than 10-fold in the past three years.
Professor McMillen said the results of her three surveys - two regarding online sporting gambling and the other on Lasseters customers - proved the online gambling ban had been unsuccessful and that the Federal Government should legalise and regulate the industry. In her submission to the Government's review of the Interactive Gambling Act, she said allowing an Australian company to offer online gaming while banning Australians from playing was "morally inconsistent and indefensible".
A spokesman for the Communications Minister, Richard Alston, would not comment on the submission, but said the Government made laws for Australians, and could not regulate activities of people overseas.
