Darcy Byrne, Labor mayor of Sydney's Inner West Council, is leading a grassroots movement to curb gambling harm, advocating for fewer poker machines in NSW clubs. He compares the poker machine lobby to the US NRA and discussed his successful motion at the NSW Labor conference.
Labor's draft national platform will soften its opposition to mandatory jail sentences, recognizing they don't reduce crime. It also commits to cracking down on online gambling inducements, pressuring the government to toughen reforms.
Labor's updated national platform, to be debated at its July conference, softens its stance on mandatory jail sentences, pushes for stronger curbs on gambling inducements, retains Aukus support, and rewrites its Israel/Palestine position to reflect Palestinian state recognition and opposition to illegal settlements.
Advocates warn that US public health resources are failing to keep pace with the rapid growth of online gambling, particularly prediction markets. Despite Donald Trump's endorsement of these platforms, which are expanding into states with long-standing gambling prohibitions, resources for problem gambling remain critically underfunded, leading to concerns about addiction spiraling out of control.
Indonesia has blocked the prediction betting platform Polymarket, classifying it as online gambling. The move follows the appearance of bets on Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto's early resignation. Authorities are also investigating related social media accounts.
Indonesia’s latest wave of police raids has exposed signs that online gambling and scam syndicates, squeezed out of traditional hubs such as Cambodia and Myanmar, are trying to turn Southeast Asia’s biggest economy into a new base. Analysts warned that Indonesia’s porous visa regime, weak law enforcement and welcoming attitude towards foreigners had made it an attractive destination for syndicates looking to avoid scrutiny. Authorities have arrested hundreds of foreign nationals in Jakarta,...
More than 300 foreign nationals were arrested in a raid on an alleged online gambling operation in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, police said on Saturday, in one of the country’s largest crackdowns on illegal digital betting networks. The 321 foreigners, mainly from Vietnam, were arrested at a commercial building near the city’s Chinatown section that investigators described as a hub for more than 70 online gambling websites, targeting players outside Indonesia, based on marketing records...
