Everyone’s talking about gambling these days. Poker machines are at the middle of a war between the Federal government and just about everyone else, bikini-clad girls and voodoo dolls are flogging mobile betting apps, and sports betting (especially the aggressive in-game promotion on a certain channel for a certain company during a certain grand final held on a Sunday) and pissing off the majority of the population. Yet for all the fuss, there’s a couple of important points that need to be remembered.

Firstly, poker machines and sports betting are legal. Love them or hate them, they’re playing by the rules, even if they are bending those rules as far as they can. And secondly, changes are coming to both of them that will fundamentally alter their place in Australia’s gambling landscape.

But there’s another gambling option which, in this country, is somewhat analogous to the old wild west. The laws are few and were made to be broken, cowboys operate without fear or responsibility, and once you’re there, you’re on your own.

I’m talking about online gambling. More specifically, I’m talking about online casino games: poker, roulette, pokies, blackjack... you name it, you can find it online. These virtual casinos currently account for a small slice of the pie in terms of dollars gambled in Australia, but that slice is growing rapidly. And that’s a real concern.

Online casinos in all their shapes and forms are illegal in Australia. It doesn’t matter whether the companies behind the casinos are based here or overseas, or whether they’re Australian or foreign-owned; the Interactive Gambling Act, which regulates all Australian ‘interactive’ (or internet-based) gambling, explicitly prohibits any company anywhere in the world from providing online casino gambling for Australians. The penalties are severe, up to AUD$1.1 million a day.

But gambling in one of these online casinos is NOT illegal. The Act is quite clear about that. Why punish individuals when it’s the companies that are at fault? This wouldn’t be a problem... if the Act was enforced.

But this is the wild west. Laws don’t count for much. The reality is that online casinos, based in a range of countries from the US and Canada to the Isle of Man, from Singapore to Belize, are open for business twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, right across the country. All you need is a computer. And to date, not one penalty has been imposed. No one has been prosecuted. The Interactive Gambling Act is a sheriff without a pistol; it’s a joke.

These online casinos claim to be Australian; that’s illegal. They claim to offer better odds and payouts than real-world casinos; that’s dishonest and misleading. Many of them require you to download casino software that installs tracking viruses deep into your systems; from that point on, your secrets are theirs. They offer free money to gamble with, then refuse to pay out unless you gamble an exorbitant amount. They rely primarily on credit cards, meaning you’re gambling with money that isn’t even yours. The list goes on and on.

And every dollar lost by Australians in these online casinos goes offshore. They are a drain on our finances, our economy, and it’s only getting worse.

So what can be done? How can we stop these overseas interlopers operating their casinos here with impunity, ripping us off and laughing all the while? The short answer is, we can’t. Any attempt to block them, ban them or prosecute them is doomed to failure. The way I see it, there’s only one solution.

We need to legalise online gambling.

Think about it. When poker machines swept across the country, the laws that were in place were already outdated and couldn’t keep pace with the rapid expansion. And as the technology behind the machines advanced, the gulf between industry and regulations grew ever wider. It’s only now, some twenty years on, that regulation is starting to catch up... and it’s a painful process.

When sports betting exploded onto the scene in a big way a few years back, once again the government was caught napping. Seemingly overnight dozens of new companies sprang up, ads hit the airwaves and TV screens, and now Centrebet sponsors nearly half the teams in the NRL and have a football stadium named after them. It’s taken public outrage to get the ball rolling on reining this situation back in.

But with online gambling, we have an opportunity. People are going to gamble online; we can’t stop them, and nor should we. So let’s make it local. Let’s make it safe. And let’s do it now.

Australia needs a national framework for online gambling; forget the states, this is one for Canberra. A national framework that stipulates the rules and regulations that any participating company must comply with. A national framework overseen by an independent body with the power to impose sanctions, fines or even shut down companies that don’t comply. A national framework that gives Australian online gamblers the protection of a safe and responsibly-run playing field.

If we can get in now, set this up and make it a reality, Australian companies would be queueing up to start locally-operated online casinos. They would be forced to comply with the rules from the outset, thereby avoiding the kinds of problems we’ve seen with pokies and sports betting. Safety features, such as spending limits, time limits and self-exclusion, could be built in to the framework. And a clear and persistent advertising campaign could drive home the message to Australian gamblers: if you want to gamble online, do it on an Australian website. Play by the rules and the rules will look after you.

But if you gamble at an offshore casino, if they rip you off and cheat you of your winnings... you’re on your own.

The overseas cowboys can’t be locked out, so we need to make the local product safer and more appealing. And we do that by making local online casinos accountable in a way the cowboys can never be.

Last year, when the Productivity Commission released their report on gambling in Australia, the only recommendation they made that the government officially rejected was the recommendation to legalise online gambling. This was met with applause from the existing Australian gambling industry; the clubs, pubs and casinos were lining up to say what a great decision that was. That’s because they know that a responsibly-operated local online gambling industry would be an attractive alternative to what they have to offer, and it scares the daylights out of them. Too bad; they don’t have the right to lock out the competition.

Properly implemented and operated, a local online gambling industry would be a far more attractive option than the dubious offshore sites can ever be. The days of the cowboys would be numbered.

And without the cowboys, there is no wild west.

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Thomas Cummings is a former problem gambler, wannabe writer and advocate for gambling reform. He blogs about gambling stuff at www.cyenne.com, and is running a gambling reform campaign at www.clubpubfail.com. There’s a petition there so please sign it! Thomas is quite proud he discovered Twitter before his kids did. Follow him @cyenne40

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