Online Casino in the Courtroom
9th November, 2007
Betfair Group has filed a case against the restrictions on its operations, that they feel have been very unfairly assigned to them and should be taken off.
The High Court of Western Australia has started to listen to all of the evidence to make a decision on whether the restrictions against Betfair operations were justified or unreasonable.
All the Betfair Australian operations are mainly located in the Tasmanian state. Betfair is now looking to create a court strike that would be directed against the Western-Australian legislation that forbids residents from betting through the exchange.
Aside from Tasmania, a lot of other state governments came to help to support Western Australia together with Sydney’s Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd (PBL).
Betfair’s main argument in court was that there is section 92 of the Constitution that says that trade between states should be absolutely free, when Australian laws prohibit interstate gamblers from betting on Western Australia horse races.
Betfair’s attorney, Stephen Gageler, went through the process of placing an online bet using Betfair without leaving out any details.
Justice Michael Kirby seemed to start getting into the process himself. 'This is getting interesting, I might get addicted,' he said.
Gageler supported Betfair's system by pointing out that Betfair is not like other betting agencies, as it gives punters an opportunity to back a larger range of possible outcomes. 'What it comes down to is a clash of a 19th-Century production process with a 21st-Century production process leading to a product with limited options versus a product with more enhanced options for the customer,' he explained.
