Crypto Casinos Help Australians Avoid Regulations?

by

It’s a well known fact that Australia is a very attractive market for online casinos, despite the country having strict regulations in place about gambling and betting online. But little is known about the extent of playing casino games with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in Australia, due to the nature of the coins themselves. Well, according to new reports, Aussies could not only be using crypto to gamble online but they may also be using it to avoid local cryptocurrency regulations.

New Crypto Regulations Can Be Bypassed

Recently, the Australian government passed new legal guidelines regarding ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings) and cryptocurrency use in the country. The goal of these new guidelines was to bring more order to the trading market but also track transactions with the purpose of preventing illegal activities and taxing profiteers.  However, according to a new story on Forex News Now, these restrictions may be avoided by local traders in a number of ways, including online crypto gambling.

For starters, most cryptocurrency investors in the country don’t use Australian exchanges but go for large offshore exchanges like Binance, which technically do not need to comply with local KYC (Know Your customer) laws. This allows the exchanges to avoid supplying customer data to local authorities, giving traders the opportunity they need to invest in various crypto assets under the radar.

The only problem, therefore, is how to cash out any newly-bought asset. Well, according to the story, that’s where cryptocurrency online casinos come into play.  As you probably already know if you’re a regular visitor to our website, cryptocurrency casinos provide better privacy and anonymity to online gamblers since regulators don’t really bother tracing crypto transactions unless there’s reason to suspect they are linked to terrorism or illegal online activities.

Casinos Become Third-Party Processors

One of the tactics that reportedly help Australian traders successfully cash out money made by trading coins is using online crypto casinos. According to the gambling legislation (Interactive Gambling Act of 2001), local gaming operators have no right to provide online services to citizens but the same restriction doesn’t technically apply to foreign gambling sites, some of which are now becoming a third-party vessel for using crypto assets bought offshore.

The number of Bitcoin and crypto-friendly gambling sites that serve Australian players is pretty large, which allegedly helps local traders in cashing out their coins. As explained in the story, Australians first transfer digital assets from offshore exchanges into online casino accounts to later withdraw them legally through payment processors like Skrill, PayPal, etc. After they do, they reportedly send those funds directly to their bank accounts without trace of where the payments came from or what activity produced them.

By doing so, local traders are subject to the state’s revenue tax but they are able to bypass the cryptocurrency tax they may get additionally charged by trading the usual way. And while the government is likely aware of these mechanisms, it probably sees it unfit to “hurt” the local economy by applying additional restriction, since taxes are still being paid, the story concludes.