Australians are not the first demographic that comes to mind when the conversation is about crypto trading. In fact, for some people, they’re the last country that comes to mind. This is due to cryptos not being as popular with Aussies, compared to Japan or even African states.
It all boils down to the Aussies’ spending habits. As of yet, there have been reports that nearly 80% of the population spends around $1,000 on gambling every month. Judging by the fact that the average income in Australia is $5,000 it’s easy to say that not many of them have any remaining funds for investments.
How were Aussies introduced to cryptos
Cryptocurrencies boomed in Australia much as they boomed anywhere else, but their true value by the population was seen after online gambling operators have started to adopt the technology. By offering faster transactions and lower fees, many Aussies started to invest or even trade cryptos for their gambling needs. But they were still more lenient towards fiat currencies.
What truly changed the minds of most Aussies was when local banks started to actively damage their customers’ credit scores for transferring funds on a gambling website. Due to this affecting 80% of the population, the government was hoping that they could cut the numbers by quite a lot. However, all it did was damage mortgages, business development and the overall economic growth of the country.
However, although the Aussies had a clear alternative, to leave their favorite games alone, they still managed to find a loophole.
Alternate payment methods
Most Australian gamblers started to use Skrill or any other third party payment provider platform in order to avoid the gaze of the government. However, soon enough these payment options also became obsolete. Due to the fact that Skrill transfers were starting to become classified as Shady, Aussies had to find a new alternative.
This was precisely when cryptocurrencies were starting to be massively adopted on digital gambling platforms, mostly in the form of bitcoin wagering games in Australia and various crypto slots.
During this time many platforms created their own cryptocurrencies, held ICOs and conducted various Marketing campaigns to increase awareness. And in fact, most of them were directed to the Australian market thanks to the massive interest.
Why was it so easy?
Australians have a very weird regulation on who can offer gambling products to their population. The fact is that local online operators don’t have this luxury, they can only operate offline. And due to the fact that Australia has some of the harshest weather conditions, such as storms and full on “sun attacks”, most people prefer to remain at home and fuel their gambling habits through that.
Nearly every foreign operator can apply for an Australian license, and in most cases, they will be given one, provided they cover the fees. The fees are usually inconsequential, which leads to dozens of platforms vying for the Australian market.
All these operators needed to do was, apply as a conventional gambling platform with trackable payment methods. And once they’ve been approved, implement a crypto payment or other third party payment methods. Due to this strategy, the damage to credit scores was virtually non-existent.
How it’s all coming to an end
Seeing how fewer and fewer Aussies were transferring funds to online gambling operators may have seemed positive for the government in the beginning, but once the numbers about yearly losses and time spent on gambling came out, it became obvious that the population had found alternative methods.
Therefore, the government is now cracking down even harder on the transaction options. Previously, Aussies had the option to make offshore transactions, maximum of $10,000. That number is going to go down to $7,500. Also, in order to monitor the cryptocurrency industry in the country, the government will also employ the ATO (Australian Taxation Office) to collect all the due tax from cryptocurrency gains ,from everyone that’s been using them for the past year.
The plan is to demand trading data for the population from local cryptocurrency exchanges, which will most likely be given without any opposition. However, the biggest challenge will be to receive the data from offshore crypto companies.
Overall, the government saw through the gamblers’ methods of avoiding surveillance. Whether or not this new policy works, remains to be seen until July the 1st.
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