28 October 2009

Casino Parties

| UncleFester
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With the introduction of the new Unlawful Gaming Act last week, I was wondering if anyone could clarify something for me? I’m holding a Casino themed party for my brothers 21st and is that now technically illegal? There’s going to be Roulette, Blackjack, Poker and a Chocolate Wheel but all the money used is going to be pretend. There’s no cash or prizes involved at all.

I got the idea from a party I went to a few years ago, but that was is NSW. Thanks!

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and don’t go playing smarties roulette either

The Chocolate Wheel is definetly illegal. I’ll haave to confiscate that I’m afraid. 🙂

First of all, I’m not a lawyer, so my experience is based purely on the research (by speaking with the relevent departments) I have done on the subject to run a comp myself.

Funky1 my guess is that they have the competition registered or the value of the prize isn’t enough to warrant a permit.

Provided that the rules for winning are clear and easy to find, and anyone who conforms to those rules has the ability to win, then there is no problems with having guessing comps coupled with tickets. Keep in mind that people can lodge objections, so make sure your rules around how to win, and the prizes on offer are water tight, and that people know exactly where to go to view those rules.

harvyk1 said :

As there is no cash or prizes involved there is nothing even remotely illegal about it.

It is only when you start introducing cash and \ or prizes that you would have problems. Not sure what the minimum value of a prize needs to be in the ACT to require a permit, but in NSW I had to purchase a $100 permit to give away a $70 prize once, admittedly the competition was open to the general public.

It was really annoying as I was running a series of competitions across the country. WA didn’t care at all, QLD, VIC and SA required me to follow certain rules, NSW insisted I purchase a permit (and was issued a permit number) which cost me more than the prize (ok so I did buy the prize wholesale, but still), as well as submit a ton of documentation…

Leading on from this (and probably not on topic), how do some people get around this by incorporating a guessing competition into their raffle tickets?

I assume there must be a loophole in the legislation that this slips through?

icantbelieveitsnotbutter9:09 am 29 Oct 09

I held one of those for my lady friends 30th… the police came around midnight as the noise was a bit much for the folks down the road… I invited them in for a quick game of blackjack/roulette, they politely declined and ask me to turn the music down. From that, I would assume no risk of being nicked.

Storm, meet teacup. I would relax my friend and possibly buy yourself a bag of cement

As there is no cash or prizes involved there is nothing even remotely illegal about it.

It is only when you start introducing cash and \ or prizes that you would have problems. Not sure what the minimum value of a prize needs to be in the ACT to require a permit, but in NSW I had to purchase a $100 permit to give away a $70 prize once, admittedly the competition was open to the general public.

It was really annoying as I was running a series of competitions across the country. WA didn’t care at all, QLD, VIC and SA required me to follow certain rules, NSW insisted I purchase a permit (and was issued a permit number) which cost me more than the prize (ok so I did buy the prize wholesale, but still), as well as submit a ton of documentation…

Money/valuables need to be exchanged for it to be considered “betting” under the curent legislation, the Gaming and Betting Act 1096. The proposed Unlawful Gaming Act 2009 has a generous exemption clause for betting on private premises, as long as you’re not charging entrance fees or commissions. The new legislation has not passed by the Assembly, so is not currently applicable anyway.

You will not have problems with your partyunder either legislation. Even if it was illegal, the likelihood of you getting caught would be very small unless people go and complain.

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