888Poker Folds its cards in Australia

By Brian Cullingworth, Last updated Mar 3, 2021

20 January 2017

Company to exit with effect from January 16

Australian online punters will see another quality online gambling operator leave their shores on January 16 when 888Poker executes its decision to withdraw from the market due to federal legislative amendments to the Interactive Gaming Act and the threat of stiff enforcement action with harsh penalties for unlicensed operators.

Players have been informed that they should close their accounts, withdraw any positive balances, and deregister from any tournaments they may have signed up for before January 16.

888 is not the first to leave, earlier this year Intertain’s Vera&John online casino headed for the exit.

PokerStars, and indeed its parent group Amaya, could also be among those planning an exit in the future.

InfoPowa readers may recall that during an investor call in November Amaya CFO Dan Sebag revealed that his company was studying Australian legislative developments and may have to abandon the country if changes are made to its online gambling law.

888Poker has already announced that it is to exit the Slovenian market, following the departure of PokerStars last summer.

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