Gaming cards: an innovation in the Australian gambling market

The tangible changes in the Australian gambling market are not just about facial tracking technology, which we’ve already talked about. This time we want to share with you some info about an innovative system that will allow you to control the gambling business. As with facial tracking technology, the new gaming cards are designed to help both gambling staff and gamblers alike.

Gaming cards will allow to completely remove cash from circulation, prioritizing the electronic payment methods. Thus, it will be possible to ensure that all financial transactions in the Australian gambling market will be monitored, and this will help to combat the illegal laundering of “dirty” money.

Australian authorities have made this decision after a series of events related to large casinos. We have already mentioned one of such events in our articles: “Results of the Crown Resorts inspection” the reason for the CEO dismissal. With new gambling cards instead of cash, the number of such incidents can be minimized, and in the best case – it might be possible to get rid of them once and for all, although it sounds rather fabulous, given the knowledge and skills of criminals.

The authorities of the state of New South Wales initiated the idea of gambling cards. The purpose of these cards is to keep track of all monetary transactions made in legal casinos. For a visitor to play in a casino from now on, he/she has to register and become the owner of a special card. New technology is a way to eliminate unregistered financial transactions, which will allow controlling the spendings of casino customers and the income of gambling establishments. Some casino operators may offer their own mechanisms to control cash transactions, adapted specifically to their clientele and looking more convenient in their opinion.

Also, the innovation will help to popularize legal casinos and minimize playing in illegal ones. From now on it will not be possible to bypass legal ways to spend time gambling, but you can freely visit licensed gambling establishments that meet quality standards and use all the latest technologies of the industry in their work.

So what prompted the government to come up with a system like this? Official data analysis gives us the following figure – in less than six months of living with the Covid-19 coronavirus infection, illegal money laundering allowed casino operators to raise their revenue by $305 million. That’s more than 10%, which is quite a lot considering the restrictions on establishments that logically should have led to a decline in profits. Authorities in New South Wales believe that 20% of all money flowing through casinos is illegal and is used in money laundering.

The principle behind the new game cards can be compared to the Opal cashless cards for public transport. To start playing, the owner will first need to recharge the card.

Victor Dominello is the organizer of this project. As it became clear, before these innovations can be taken into use, the minister has to convince his colleagues that the new system was a step in development. Some of them, however, think that playing with these cards might lead to a negative reaction from casino operators due to their potential financial loss.

It’s hard to argue that with gambling cards, the Australian gambling market will soon reach a new level, although this reform is pending since early 2021. Instead of completely banning casino operators from this business and players from enjoying their bets, the Australian government is aiming for a compromise that should help the market keep functioning even despite pandemics. Gaming cards might really be a complete solution to a problem like money laundering. The number of customers at illegal casinos should decrease, which means that more players will visit legal establishments offering game cards.

Relevant news and articles