– Betfair bought pokerchamps and just switched their poker room to the pokerchamps software from cryptologic
– Betfair operate legally in Australia, accepting sports and horseracing bets under license
– It’s illegal to accept Australians to play online poker, so seeing as Betfair has an Australian operation they have had to ban Australians from all the properties they own. Currently, similar to the US it’s not illegal for Aussies to play online, but it is illegal for anyone to accept their bets (or even advertise to them). This law has been in place since 2001, but most poker rooms ignore it as they have no interests physically in Australia.
In the long run Betfair/PokerChamps banning Aussies from poker will actually be a good thing as the Aussie arm of Betfair is half owned by Australia’s richest man, James Packer. The more Aussies that see that Betfair has poker, but they can’t play, the more likely it is that it will annoy them and pressure will build to regulate and allow online poker. If Packer is pushing for it, it’s a lot more likely to happen. Most Aussies are oblivious to the fact that online poker is banned as there’s only a couple of rooms that block them. As soon as the general public is more aware, there will be outrage and the law will be changed. Australian reps attended the recent summit in the UK, which is a good sign.