Online Gambling by Country

Players from Australia, Canada and New Zealand can enjoy a wide range of real cash gambling services at hundreds of fully licensed gambling portals, most of which are licensed either in the United Kingdom (UK Gambling Commission), in Malta (Malta Gaming Authority), in Gibraltar (Gibraltar Regulatory Authority), in Kahnawake (Kahnawake Gaming Commission), in Curacao (Curaçao Internet Gaming Association), in Antigua (Directorate of Offshore Gaming), or on the Isle of Man (the Gambling Supervision Commission).

Players can enjoy gambling at land-based casinos, race tracks and sports betting shops, as well as at online casinos, poker, bingo, lotteries and sportsbetting websites and they are NOT breaking any local laws when gambling in the real money mode at the online gambling websites. These gaming sites are generally FREE to sign up to and you will be able to claim a guaranteed new player welcome bonus when signing up. Today’s best fully licensed gambling portals are usually controlled by trustworthy operators and they often provide 24 hour toll-free support.

Australia

Australians can now visit approximately 500 land-based gambling venues and some of these include land-based casinos, cruise ship casinos, race tracks (horses and dogs), lotteries and sports betting shops and although the federal government is involved in keeping an eye on these gambling activities, their general focus lies in regulating the advertising of gambling. The Australian government also monitors & regulates online gambling, but you will find that it is quite often the local authorities of individual states that apply their own gambling laws in most other areas of gambling.

The Interactive Gambling Act (IGA) was introduced in 2001 and this new law meant that although the Australian government would issue licenses to potential operators, those operators were prohibited from accepting real cash wagers from Australian players. In other words, Australians had no other choice but to gamble at foreign-owned gambling portals which are licensed & operate from outside of Australian borders.

The good news for Australians is that they are spoilt for choice when it comes to choosing a suitable gaming site. There are more than 2,250 of these sites available online today. They all accept Australian dollars and most of these websites have several different gambling products available under the same roof (e.g. online casino, online poker, online sportsbetting, lotteries, bingo and/or one or two other products). Today’s best Australian focussed gambling sites will always accept Australian dollars and they tend to provide local Australian toll-free telephone support.

Canada

Almost all forms of gambling were originally legal in Canada, but just before the 20th century arrived new legislation was brought in to prohibit gambling in all its forms. At the turn of the century though, charitable events started allowing certain casual forms of gambling such as bingo and raffles and then approximately a decade later, in 1910, it was possible to place a wager on the horses again. Almost 80 years passed before gaming machines became legal and then numerous land based gaming venues such as bricks & mortar casinos started appearing throughout the country.

Now, in the 21st century, almost all forms of land-based gambling activities are legal again, but online gambling is a much more complicated situation altogether. The Canadian government does not issue licenses that will allow gambling operators to run their own gaming sites. Instead, it is the individual provinces that have opened their own gambling sites. You can also find lots of online gambling portals that operate from outside of Canadian borders and the operators of these sites can aim their business towards Canadian players without breaking any laws.

There’s also the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. This is an internationally recognised licensing authority which is located in the Kahnawake Mohawk Territory, just outside of Montreal. This jurisdiction does not fall under Canadian laws and it has been issuing online gambling licenses since 1999. The Kahnawake Gaming Commission has actually become the largest online gambling licensing authority in North America and it has issued licenses to some of the most trusted gambling portals in the world. Many Canadians frequently gamble at Kahnawake-licensed sites and these websites generally include online poker rooms and online casinos, as well as bingo, lottery & sportsbetting websites.

Canadian Gambling Websites:

PlayOLG.com - For those interested in playing online that are from Canada and interested in playing with a licensed and regulated gambling body this is the website you should be visiting and playing with.

LottoQuebec.com - For the official website for the lottery and gaming corporation from Quebec this website will provide you with everything you need including winning numbers for official lotteries in Canada.

New Zealand

Most socially accepted forms of gambling are deeply entrenched in New Zealand society and a huge percentage of kiwis place frequent real cash wagers. Today there are lots of fully licensed land-based gambling venues such as race-tracks, sports betting shops & bingo halls and when we last counted there were 7 bricks & mortar casinos. Commercialised gambling in NZ is still a relatively new industry though which only really exploded as recently as the early 1990s.

The industry was vastly free to do what it wanted until the Gambling Act was passed in 2003 and this instantly restricted the number of land-based casinos that could be built. Although this didn’t affect the popularity of gambling, it did mean that the industry was now tightly regulated and even more closely monitored than ever before. The new act even banned most forms of online gambling, apart from a handful of strictly regulated sports betting games and lotteries being offered by TAB (Totalizator Agency Board) and the New Zealand Lotteries Commission.

The New Zealand government does not prevent its citizens from gambling in the real money mode at foreign-controlled gambling portals which are licensed offshore and this is exactly where millions of kiwis play. Despite the strict local online gambling laws and lack of home-grown gaming sites, this has not really had an effect on New Zealanders who can now enjoy gambling in the real money mode at more than 2000 fully licensed online casinos, poker rooms, bingo sites, lottery sites and sportsbetting sites.

New Zealand Gambling Websites:

KiwiOnlineCasino.com - New Zealand players are fortunate in that they have many options for online casinos from which to choose from. This website helps to narrow down the selection of a select few.