Betfair Triumphs Again

March 30, 2008

Betfair has had their day in court and has won, again. Western Australia had tried to put a limitation on the amount of online gambling that could be performed – especially as it pertained to those companies not necessarily within their borders, and the courts have shut them down.

Their politicians and other online gambling companies tried to keep residents from participating in online gambling at Betfair, only to find themselves on the wrong side of the ruling. The High Court challenge that the online gambling company won will set a precedent for many other online casinos as well.

The High Court has ruled that the legislation that they were trying to pass was unconstitutional. They said that it “imposed protectionist burdens on interstate trade” and therefore went against section 92 of their constitution.

As Betfair is truly a worldwide company, they allow players to place their own odds and bets against each other, and then they get a percentage of the bet. The online gambling company claims they process more than five million transactions a day, and more than 300 bets a second. That is a whole lot of betting!

The company has also challenged a West Australian law that places the onus on the online gambling participants, stating that there would be punitive restrictions on any local resident betting using their company or any similar kind of company. They would be looking at $10,000 and a possible two year imprisonment for participating. The High Court also saw these laws as invalid.



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