"Our team is constantly on the lookout for the best online casinos around. We make it our responsibility to ensure that our users play somewhere that's trustworthy and secure, but also offers the best promotions available."
- Issac Taylor - Senior Editor
Someone once said that to know where you're headed, you have to know where you came from. In this particular case it might not ring as true, but it is rather useful to have some insights and background knowledge on where our longstanding love and passion for gambling came from. If you're not into long history lessons, you're guaranteed to find these fun facts interesting and educational! It not only gives you a better understanding of our roots and culture, but also paints a colourful picture of the evolution of gambling in Oz.
If you paid any attention in your History class, you would know that the British colonised Australia in 1788. With them they brought some British citizens (colonialists and convicts) and these citizens brought their culture, language, and also their favourite pastime; card games and horse racing. Short after their arrival, in 1810 to be exact, the very first horse race took place in Sydney. By 1860 horse racetracks were sprouting up like mushrooms and could be found in every major city of Australia.
The popularity of betting and wagering grew all too quickly, and the Australian government soon realised the lucrative nature of this pastime. Aussies were engaging in horseracing, greyhound racing and all sorts of above and underground card games. In 1920 the very first government-run lottery was established in Queensland. The Golden Casket lotteries proved to be a huge success and other government-run lotteries soon followed suit. The last one to join the fun was introduced in 1965 in South Australia.
Did you know that at this very moment, there is one Pokies machine for every 108 Australian citizens? That says a lot about the popularity of Pokies in Oz, right? But where did it all begin? The very first Pokies machine was built by Charles Fey, a German, back in 1895. It took some time for this revolutionary form of gambling to reach Australian shores, and was only introduced by a company called Aristocrat Limited after the Australian government legalised slot machines in 1956.
Fast forward to the 70s, and imagine clubs and bars in Australia packed with Pokies machines and Aussies playing poker and other card games. Obviously this insatiable love for betting and gaming amongst Australians bred the need for a communal place of gathering. And where there's a need, there usually is someone with the smarts looking to answer and accommodate. In comes the Wrest Point Riviera Hotel in Tasmania, who researched the industry and applied for a casino licence. The government, also realising the revenue possibilities of opening a casino, granted this licence to them in 1968. The Wrest Point Hotel started doing business in 1973 and caused a much-anticipated subsequent rise in tourism and profits. Needless to say this led to the development of several casinos in Australia.
With the introduction of the Internet a whole lot of things changed. If you can remember that dial-up tone when connecting to the internet, we're sure you can remember the feeling of excitement experienced when being exposed to a whole new world like this for the very first time. And of course, casino operators and developers alike saw another opportunity to broaden the reach and recruit more loyal gamblers by using this new, revolutionary technology to their advantage. The very first online casino in Australia, Lasseters, was introduced in 1999.
As you can imagine, the immediacy and accessibility of casinos became so easy and effortless with the introduction of online gambling. Even before online gambling, Aussies were very passionate about betting and wagering, and the emergence of easy accessible casinos was like pouring oil over the fire. Gambling addiction, or problem gambling, became a threat and a very real concern for the wellbeing of the Australian population and the need for a governing system were unavoidable. The Commonwealth Parliament stepped in and introduced the IGA in 2001, aiming to regulate the industry and protect Aussie players from illicit practices.
And there you have it! From the humble beginnings up until the tech age and the governing laws that came with it. Now that you know your gambling history, you can be sure that this lucrative industry is not going anywhere, anytime soon!
