Tasmanians to Sell Tote

The treasurer of the Tasmanian government, Michael Aird, recently published his plans to increase the funding of the state’s horseracing industry. There is apparently a movement that will bring forth the effort to the Tasmanian Parliament in order for the Gaming Control Act of 1993 to be amended. The Act affects the online casino industry as well as the horse betting and racing industry. The Tasmanian Tote reported that the Tasmanian Gaming Commission will be active in a biding process which is also promised to be very competitive in order to have new regulations for online casinos. The process would be over seen by an appointed independent person who would oversee the transactions to make sure that they were conducted fairly and out in the open.

The Tote would be sold just as other Australian states and Territories have done previously. Their hope is to finalize the sale by June 2009, which would give Parliament plenty of time to finish changing over the current online casino and sports betting legislations. The sale of Tote will provide a more competitive position for the TABs in Queensland, South Australia, New South Wales and Victoria. The case behind the online casinos and horse racing industry in Tasmania is that wagering businesses are not a function of the government but are businesses in public ownership. The government said that if they approved the sale of Tote it would ensure that the employees of the company would be able to keep their jobs and maintain their current benefits which existed with their previous ownership.