Online Casinos

An online casino game or ‘Ding Ding’ is a game on your phone that looks like a pokie, slot or casino machine.

You use real money to play, hoping for the chance to win more money, coins or credits back.

To play these games someone might transfer money directly to a bank account, pay with a credit card or use PAYID to transfer money.

Online gambling games are filled with scams and tricks. Fake online casinos often appear real and promise large winnings, but they are scams and designed to steal your money.

Be aware that all online casino games, including games that look like pokie machines, casino-style games, and online scratchies are illegal under Australian law.

The Australian government has banned companies in Australia from creating online casino games. This is because online casinos can be highly addictive and can cause a lot of harm to us. As the game can be played on our phones, it is with us 24/7 and can be very difficult to stop playing.

It is not illegal for a person to play an online casino game in Australia, but it is illegal to create the game and make money from it. Because of this law, it means that every single online casino game available in Australia is created overseas in countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines where it is legal to make them. The games are then illegally advertised to us to play through the internet.

As online casinos are banned in Australia and made overseas it means they are not controlled by Australian laws. If you win money playing an online casino game, they do not have to give you your winnings because there are no laws making them.

If you lose money playing an online casino game, there is no one that can help you. The bank or the police cannot help you retrieve lost winnings as you have chosen to give your money to an illegal game made overseas.

Online Casino games are also full of tricks and scams. As the games are not controlled by Australian laws, many are not fair or random and are filled with ways to steal money from you.

It is best to not play online casino games.

Companies overseas know that online casino games are illegal in Australia. They still make the games and send us ads telling us to play, because they know they can make money off us. The Australian Government calls these companies “criminal companies” and is trying to block them but more pop up every day.

If you choose to play online casinos games, you are choosing to give money to criminals overseas

Every online casino game in Australia is illegal and pretending to be real. If you still choose to play online casino games; look out for these red flags:

While some illegal games have found ways to use approved payment platforms like having you pay by Visa or Mastercard, every game that asks for you to send money by PAYID is a fake game.

Be especially careful of games that change their PAYID details frequently.

They do this to avoid the police tracking them down.

Many fake games pretend to be real casino brands and create fake social media accounts in their name.

Never play games you find on social media.

Fake games will often ask you to not use words such as “pokies” slots” or “gambling” in the payment description when sending money by PAYID. This is to hide their illegal game from the bank and police.

A legal gambling company never has a withdrawal limit higher than $10.

Scam games often only send you a small amount of your winnings, turn some your money into game credits you can’t withdraw or some do not send any money to you at all.

The bank or police cannot help you get your money back. Unfortunately, you have chosen to give your money to criminals.

Does the website you go to change often, sometimes by only one number?

An example is: enjoy95.com becomes enjoy96.com

This is because their other website has been found by the police.

How to Protect Yourself:

Always check if a casino game is legal in Australia by visiting the Australian Communications and Media Authority official search page and entering the website: Check if a gambling operator is legal

If you know of a fake or illegal online gambling website, report the website immediately. This will tell the Government to block this website.

Interactive gambling complaint form

If you suspect you have been scammed or you have played an online casino game, contact your bank immediately. This will stop any more money being taken from your account.

For more information on how these scams work and general scam advice see: Protect yourself from fake online gambling

Gambling can be a fun activity for lots of people when it is done safely. This means only using a small amount of money and going to a real-life, Australian casino. This is because real life casinos are controlled by Australian laws.

Remember, our chance of winning money is still very very very small. To see the real odds of winning when gambling visit.