“Dear Minister, congratulations on your appointment as Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. It is a big job but you have very small shoes to fill. Your predecessor left an unfortunate legacy and very many problems, which only astute policy-making can solve.” Was the welcome to office that writer Graeme Philipson of smh.com.au offered the newly appointed Australian Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts.
Representing a view that seems to permeate most cognizant Australian’s minds, Philipson asks the question – why can Australians bet on non-Australian gambling sites, while not allowed to bet on Australian gambling sites, while the rest of the world is free to bet on Australian casino gambling sites as they wish? -A logical question that has not been answered since the legal anomaly was born out of Australian online gaming legislation several years ago.
Australians are among the heaviest gamblers in the world, and it is argued that their online gambling dollars should stay within Australia and be allocated, in part, to gambling education and help programs for addicted gamblers. In fact, Philipson suggests that the tax revenue from online casino gambling from Australians would be so significant that it could take a bite out of Australia’s whopping $14 billion IT deficit. | 
