Lottoland Australia has had to fight for its right to provide betting services to its clients recently. The company was accused of confusing customers about the services it offers and for facilitating compulsive gambling among other things.
The betting operator has claimed repeatedly that they had done nothing wrong and that Northern Territory Racing Commission (NTRC) was trying to shut down its operations. The latest developments happening around Lottoland Australia prove that the betting provider had a point.
The Problem Authorities Have with Jackpot Betting
Jackpot betting is the most popular product that Lottoland Australia offers. It enables Australian players to pick random numbers and participate in popular international lottery draws such as the US Powerball, EuroMillions, and others.
However, there’s a catch. Players participate in these draws without actually buying a ticket for them. Lottoland customers are betting on what the company calls “international stock market indices” that happen at specified times on an almost daily basis.
In layman’s terms, this means that Aussies are betting on the outcomes of popular international draws without actually being part of them. They bet on the numbers they expect to come up as they would in a normal lottery draw, but are not involved with the lottery draws mentioned.
And therein lays the problem, according to Australian regulators, specifically, the Northern Territory Racing Commission (NTRC). Authorities claim that jackpot betting misleads Australian customers by making them believe that they are participating in the real draws and not in proxy events.
They back this claim further with the fact that Lottoland uses names such as US Power for the US Powerball, and they say that this is done to trick players into thinking that they are playing in the actual game of chance.
Changes to the NT Racing and Betting Act 1983
Last year, the NTRC decided to stop what Lottoland Australia was doing in its state, and sought changes to the NT Racing and Betting Act 1983 as a result.
They didn’t disclose what the changes were at the start, but it immediately became apparent that the reason why they were being put in place was to negatively affect Lottoland.
After all, no other bookmakers that were licensed by the NTRC said anything against the proposed changes at the time, and one could assume that they would have spoken out if they were negatively affected as well.
The wait was over two days before Christmas, though, and bookmakers found out about the changes when the NTRC informed them that they would:
- No longer be able to offer to bet on events that would lead people into thinking they were participating in a lottery draw;
- No longer be able to allow bettors to place wagers on proxy events.
This made it clear to everyone that Lottoland would have to completely stop offering the jackpot betting product, once again reaffirming that the proposed changes were put in place to hurt the betting provider.
These sentiments were also shared by one of the attorneys that represent Lottoland Australia. He said that the changes that they were informed about last December would apply to all betting operators licensed by the NTRC, but they would only hurt Lottoland.
Lottoland Wins an Injunction from the Northern Territory Supreme Court
However, all of those proposed changes will have to be put on hold for now, as Lottoland has just won an injunction from the Northern Territory Supreme Court relating to the proposed changes in gambling regulations.
This means that the betting operator can continue working as it did until the NT Supreme Court gives its verdict on the entire case this November.
It also means that Lottoland will not wait for November to come and cease its operations then, and it will instead fight tooth and nail until the proposed changes are completely dropped.
The betting provider may not be in the most favourable position to win the case, but if Lottoland people learned anything from their Australian experience, it is that you have to persevere in your efforts to win.
They won a similar court case against the IGA in August 2019. It related to the same product of jackpot betting after the NSW Supreme Court ruled that jackpot betting qualified as excluded wagering services.
