Why the Former Gambling Addict Has Taken the Poker Machine Manufacturer to Court

As one tour through Australia, one would not miss out on the presence of the casinos. Poker is something that has been a big draw and much more now with the emergence of online casinos that also allow the slot games on any device. With the easy real-time payment options also available online, the rising number of poker players across the world, not just Australia has gone up.

However, much recently, a former gambling addict was on news for taking the Crown Resorts, and Aristocrat, a reputed gaming company to court. What went wrong? The answer was that Shonica Guy; a former Poker addict felt that the poker machine manufacturer was using misinformation to draw players. She has alleged that there were various ways in which the defendant was doing this to the players, who are ending up losing a fortune in this manner.

The Alleged Accusations Against the Game Developers

Shonica Guy has alleged that Aristocrat Technologies, who are developers of this game, “Dolphin Treasure”, and Crown Casino have just increased the size of the fifth reel and distributed the symbols unevenly thereby ‘misleading’ the players.  The game’s background lights and sounds, of bells, are also very misleading since they gave a false impression to the player of a win, even when they are losing. So, a player would end up being disheartened at the end, is what Guy remarks. Additionally, Ms. Guy’s representative has added that the poker machines also claim to offer 87% return to player, which is also wrong.

The Reason for the Court Case

More and more players come to play poker because of the high-quality graphics and unique themes of slot machines. Whether it is through online casinos or at land based casinos, the players are only coming in. The fact that many high rollers are playing the games right from the comfort of their homes or clubs without even visiting the casinos shows that they love this trend. While anything that people indulge in keeping restriction in mind is fine, many often people forget this limit.

That is when the problem sets in and starts to take over life. Much middle class or working-class people might also end up losing a major chunk of their earnings here.

Globally, this rise in the number of pokies has increased drastically from 2003 onwards and even now, there is a big draw for pokies. But that said, Shonica Guy’s claim that she has used the game developers so that it becomes more transparent to the player is worth note.

As a result of this lawsuit, a few big changes can come over in the Poker game from Crown Casino and Aristocrat Technologies. One, they could bring in more changes or totally remove the slot machines from the casinos altogether. However, Ms. Guy has expressed clearly that her main intention is to ensure that other pokies do not get fooled by such misinformation ever.

How Western Australia’s New Tax Will Affect the Bookmakers and Punters in the Long Run

Recently, a decision by the Western Australia government caused quite a stir in the gaming circuit. The government has decided to impose a new tax – the consumption tax of 15% on the bookmakers. This decision has come just a few days prior to the commencement of the Spring Racing Carnival, which is an important event in the Western Australia. This has caused a shiver among the bookmakers and the gaming circuit that do not welcome this move at all. Of late, the government has been trying to implement a host of online protection for the gambling sector with a lot of measures, and this tax is one of those measures.

The complete list of measures would appear on the next few months and would come into play only from 2018.

Not Welcomed by the Gaming Circuit

The Responsible Wagering Authority has claimed that it has already agreed to take part in the Federal Government’s national plan of wagering. Similarly, many top names in the business like James Packer the CEO of Crown Casino has claimed that this move will not make the domestic market any stronger. The government is focusing to levy the highest tax rates on the betting companies in the Northern Territory and who do not pay the tax in Victoria.

Online betting and gaming companies have claimed that this would easily urge the bookmakers to force the regional punters to go and bet from unsecured and uncontrolled betting agencies.

So, the claim of the government that they would be able to control and regulate the local market is not going to work. Similarly, it would also force the online bookmakers to pass on their tax load onto the punters only, thereby discouraging the punters. So, Responsible Wagering Authority’s executive director has asserted that this would cause the racing and betting industry to face a big loss.

Hope Shown by WA Gaming Minister

Western Authority’s gaming and racing Minister Paul Papalia and Treasurer Ben Wyatt state that from 1 January 2019, the government would lay down all the new tax setup, the legalities and more for the betting companies.

This time the government has laid the tax on the place where people placed the bets and not on the location of the game developing company. That is to say, this was the main focus of this 15$ consumption tax and not to view it as a supply tax.

The government has stated that this move is sure to work for the benefit of the consumers and handles the gambling problems or the gambling addiction among the players. As per the statistics, the addiction to online betting was as high as three times as the other forms of gambling. They have also stated that it was true that the number of players who betted has risen over the past few years. This just shows that the plan of the WA is not to slug the punters but to control the betting losses and addiction.

New Jersey Pushing Gambling Forward

New-Jersey

The policy of expanding online gambling switches to an offensive mode in certain regions of the United States of America, and the example of New Jersey is particularly interesting. Government online gambling regulators designated a deadline for submitting applications of state license to organize online games of various kinds, ranging from poker and ending with slot machines, giving the choice of an operator.

An interesting fact is that every brick and mortar casino of Atlantic City has already submitted the applications. The term for processing the requests is deadlined in the fourth quarter of 2014. Although this fact has a perfectly reasonable explanation: online casinos some sort of internet shops compared with ground stores where the real costs are significantly reduced due to the range of commonly known factors.

The expert opinion

Government regulators demanded a specific designation of planned online partners who have a certain status and name. The official representative of an organization of gambling regulation institution of New Jersey Lisa Spengler issued an open statement:

‘We have studied a good number of submitted applications to keep the official online gambling business from a number of applicants. At the same time among the partners cooperating with online gambling organizers there is a number of big names, such as Borgata and Caesars Entertainment, Bwin.Party, 888 and etc.’.

One of the requirements for applicants looking to establish legal online gambling in the territory of New Jersey, is an indispensable requirement for the location of the main sites in Atlantic City. Tobin Prior, who is the head of the gambling organization Union of New Jersey said:

‘The scheme of online casinos organization, based on the platform of real land casinos, has passed the testing in Nevada quite successfully and proved to be a working scheme’.

This way or the other, the deadlines set by regulators of online gambling according to some analysts are not entirely acceptable for several reasons. So a well-known analyst in the world of online casinos from no less famous Deutsche Bank, Andrew Zarnett expressed his opinion:

‘Established by the government of New Jersey period of November 2014 is too arrogant and not quite real. After all, the unaccounted problems will necessarily come to the light. This is almost inevitable fact, but what sorts of problem will we collide with? This is the main question’.

In any case, regardless of the timing of the project running, the end result, of course, will also clearly and certainly will be positive. The only question is the time frame that would be used for the implementation of the plan. After the successful examples of the implemented legalization in terms of taxation incomes, there is no doubt the government regulators will do everything possible to steadily introduce new legal frameworks. According to a Swedish gambling website Apnet.com casino, a digital house for piles of statistics and reviews, the amount generated at least within the first week after online gambling in New Jersey exceeded $85ml, lower than expected. But in either event, the regulators will gladly accept such a budget replenishment, rather than nothing.