Australian online casinos

Australia has banned online casinos with no legal gambling sites available in 2024. The top online casinos in Australia were forced to withdraw following an update to the Interactive Gambling Act, which banned offshore gambling sites. While there is a thriving illegal online casino scene that targets Australia, BettingPlanet.com does not advertise real money gambling to places with strict laws. We will update our guide to the best online casinos in Australia when regulation changes and legal gambling emerges.

Introduction to AU online casino gambling

Gambling is one of the most popular pastimes and thriving industries in Australia, with the online sector growing rapidly at 15% per annum and over $1.4 billion wagered over the Internet every year. The ease of access to real money casino sites via smartphones, tablets and the traditional home computer has been a boon for Australians, but unfortunately some recent legislation developments may make things more restrictive in the near future.

However, as of right now, Aussies cannot legally gamble online at many offshore-based casino sites, which are licensed by reputable advanced gambling jurisdictions in other countries. This page lists all legitimate, licensed and regulated online casinos accepting Australian players, as well as in-depth casino reviews and guides to get you started – especially if you’re looking for generous sign-up bonuses.

This means the only forms of legal gambling Australians can do online, is via sports betting sites and lotto betting sites.

Best real money casinos for Australia

The online casinos listed in the table above are our top-rated real money casino sites for Australian players. We base our recommendations on several important factors, including:

• Accessibility (do you have to download special software or can you play instantly?)
• Customer service (are staff quick to answer questions and address problems?)
• Deposit options (do they provide safe and secure payment methods?)
• Legitimate gaming license (do advanced gaming jurisdictions regulate them?)
• Range of games (how many slots and table games and are they from leading software developers?)
• …and many more factors which we go into further depth in our reviews, which you can read by following the relevant table links

These are the offshore online casinos currently still accepting Australian players:

Are online casinos legal in Australia?

Yes, as an Australian citizen, you can currently gamble at online casinos based in foreign countries. As with all forms of gambling in the country, you have to be over 18 years old to sign up and play with ID documentation provided.

Since August 2001, interactive gambling services provided to Australian residents by an Internet casino based within the country have technically been banned as per the Interactive Gambling Act (IGA). Interactive gaming or interactive gambling is defined by the Australian government as “gambling activities conducted via the internet” such as online blackjack, poker, pokies, scratch cards and more, but which “specifically excludes wagering in the form of racing and sports betting, and lotteries via the internet.”

However, the wording of the IGA meant offshore-based online casinos continued to offer their interactive gambling services to Australians as they are regulated in foreign gaming jurisdictions such as in Malta (licensed by the Malta Gaming Authority) or the United Kingdom (licensed by the United Kingdom Gambling Commission) and not bound by Australian online gambling laws. Because the IGA targets online casino operators and not the players, Australians have safely gambled at legitimate and reputable real money casino sites for over a decade thanks to the consistent audits and strict regulation provided by these aforementioned overseas gambling commissions.

However, Australia’s online gambling laws looks set to have a near future shake-up following the enactment of the Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill, which was passed in Australian parliament in March 2017. The changes to the IGA make it clearer that offshore online casinos are not meant to service Australians by stating the new amendments “will prohibit a person providing regulated interactive gambling services to Australians unless the person holds a licence under the law of an Australian state or territory”, but with no local authorative body established which issues online casino licenses, it will effectively make offshore real money casino sites illegal – if and when the bill goes through the House of Representatives.

Real money online casino games for Australians

Australians have access to all types of pokies and table games you would find in any land-based casino venue in the country, with greater diversity and tons of flexible betting options (blackjack and baccarat hands as low as $2 or pokies with spins as high as $200, for example). The entire catalogues of premium gaming software developers such as BetSoft, Microgaming, Net Entertainment and Play’n Go are available to Aussies at the majority of sites we recommend at BettingPlanet. The best games are live dealer titles made by Evolution Gaming and NetEnt, with real dealers handling equipment and bets, streamed live to your computer or mobile screen in HD. Check out our individual game guides linked below for more information on each type of online casino game:

• Live dealer games
• Online blackjack
• Online roulette casinos
• Online poker
• Online pokies
• Video poker

Mobile casinos for Australians

Mobile casinos are essentially optimised versions of online casinos which better suit the smaller touch-based screens of our smartphones and tablet devices. Every major online casino we recommend have an instant-play (play through your Web browser without having to download an app) mobile site which is 90% the same at the desktop version, with some exceptions. Namely, some pokies and table games are not available in mobile versions due to the porting costs dictating only the most popular titles get the mobile treatment. Otherwise, the experience is virtually identical and more convenient given you can play anywhere, anytime.

All you need to access the mobile casino versions of our recommended sites is an active Wi-Fi Internet connection or a 4G/3G mobile data connection. There are also several mobile casino app options to download to your smartphone or tablet’s home-screen to make accessing your games more convenient, though the experience is 100% identical to playing at your preferred mobile casino via Web browsers. Android, BlackBerry, iOS (all generations of iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch), Samsung and Windows Phone operating systems and models are all capable of loading mobile casinos.

The casino games available to Australians is massive, with many different types of pokies and various table games available. Online poker, while not match for hosting your own game of poker at home, is also very popular, although the real money version is also banned in Australia.

Mobile live dealer has been one of the biggest drivers of online gambling, with it now possible to play live casino games from your smartphones and tablets. We expect mobile live dealer to continue to grow in popularity as internet connections around the world improve.

Australian deposit and withdrawal options at online casinos

Australians thankfully have a decent range of online casino payment methods to deposit AUD at online casinos and get playing, including internationally trusted options like MasterCard and Visa (credit, debit and pre-paid cards), direct bank transfers (with your local bank such as ANZ or Commonwealth), e-Wallets (AUD at online casinos with Neteller”>Neteller, Skrill) and pre-paid digital services (Paysafecard).

Every online and mobile casino we recommend on BettingPlanet implement at minimum 128 bit Secure Socket Layer digital encryption technology to safeguard all of their player’s financial transactions – the same security used by the world’s major banks and financial institutions and shopping websites like eBay. Most deposits are instantaneous, with on average 48-hour waiting times for withdrawal processes. Check out our top online casino sign up bonuses for more information on the best value casino sites.