LeoVegas Announces Exit from Australian Gambling Market

There has been a mass exodus of gaming sites quitting Australia in the wake of its decision to endorse the Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill (2016), and levy heavy fines on those operators who seek to flaunt the new law. Amongst those major operators exiting Australia is 888, with the latest firm to pack up and leave the lucrative market being the Swedish online gambling company LeoVegas.
According to reports, LeoVegas has already informed its affiliates that it would be halting its service in Australia as of September 10th 2017, with local players subsequently unable to access LeoVegas.com after that date. Furthermore, the company has advised affiliates that they will no longer receive a revenue share from Australian customers, and that they should immediately stop promoting their links in Australia, or else risk breaching the Affiliate Partner Terms and Conditions.
News of LeoVegas’ departure comes soon after the Mansion Group affiliate brand called iAffiliates exited Australia on August 31st, with another brand called Genesis Global Limited also leaving the country today. First to quit the market, though, was bingo operator Vera&John, which left in December 2016, followed by 888poker in mid-January 2017, and then 32Red in April 2017. Partypoker also departed Australia today, while the world’s biggest online poker company, PokerStars, has already sent an email to its Australian customers telling them that only free-money games would be available on its site post September 11th.
Australia is undergoing its own Black-Friday scenario after the country’s government decided it needed to protect its citizens from the harm associated with problem gambling. Australia has one of the highest rates of gambling addiction in the world, and last year Australians lost a total of $17.5 billion gambling, which comes to around $949 per adult. Nevertheless, slot machines known as pokies, are one of the main culprits for the losses, with an estimated 60% of losses on these machines derived from problem gamblers.