Australia, fresh off a new set of gambling regulations that went into effect recently, will now consider adding a point of consumption tax for online gambling.
Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison has spoken with officials from states and territories before the Australian parliament begins budget deliberations, according to local media.
Morrison told reporters that an agreement had been reached to “move forward to prepare a proposal for a nationally consistent approach to point of consumption tax on online gaming.” But Morrison said the tax would not be “about raising revenue for revenue’s sake”, but instead minimizing gambling-related harm for consumers and national sporting bodies, according to a report at igamingbusiness.com.
“This is a very important issue, both from a revenue perspective but, frankly, more importantly, from a social perspective,” Morrison said
Morrison did not say when a proposal might be introduced to parliament saying that state and territory governments need to examine the matter further.
Australia just adopted amendments to its gambling act that ban “in-play” sports betting and essentially ban online casino and poker games.
