International punters will be able to bet with Kerry and James Packer in cyberspace from today, but Australians will be barred from playing at Publishing and Broadcasting’s online casino.
Vanuatu-based Crowngames.com will not take bets from gamblers residing in either Australia or the United States. The Australian Government has banned local companies from offering online gaming to Australians.
In order both to comply with the legislation and to stitch up the lucrative Asian market, PBL’s Internet casino will target gamblers from that region.
To be launched today, Crowngames.com will build on the massive success of Crown Casino, which PBL acquired three years ago. 5g88
The Packers’ move offshore to Vanuatu was flagged in May. PBL chairman James Packer has said that Vanuatu was not the company’s preferred location for its online casino, but blamed regulatory hurdles for making it too difficult to establish something locally.
Vanuatu’s tax rate of 2.5 per cent is a further incentive for Australian operators seeking to circumvent the legislative ban. The $US45,000 ($A88,000) licence fee the Vanuatu Government charges online casino operators is also relatively low compared with the potential financial rewards to be reaped from taking bets over the Internet.
Gaming was the only PBL division to increase earnings in 2001, booking $212 million before interest and tax. Crown accounted for 42 per cent of the $507 million PBL earned in total.
PBL chief executive Peter Yates has been driving the expansion of the company’s gaming interests. In his former career as an investment banker, Mr Yates advised on the financial set-up of Crown in the early 1990s and was also involved in the privatisation of both the NSW TAB and Tabcorp in Victoria.
In addition to Crowngames.com, PBL is exploring the possibility of establishing a casino off the coast of Taiwan, should the Taiwanese Government legalise casinos, as it is expected to do. PBL is also investigating potential casino opportunities in Britain, after a recent government report there recommended widespread deregulation of the gaming industry.
Since losing $330 million when mobile-phone company One.Tel collapsed six months ago, PBL has adopted a more conservative investment strategy. Potential investments must be cashflow positive and must complement the company’s core gaming, publishing and TV operations.
PBL has recently expanded its presence across the Tasman. In November the company bought New Zealand trade publisher Liberty Press. And just before Christmas PBL formed a content and advertising partnership with Prime Television New Zealand.
PBL shares fell two cents to $9.78 yesterday.
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