The State of Poker in Australia
Australia was, before 2017, one of the healthiest online poker markets in the world. All of the major platforms — PokerStars, 888Poker, PartyPoker, and dozens more — operated freely, serving an estimated 130,000 regular online poker players. Aussies were known in international poker communities as generous, enthusiastic, and numerous. That all changed on 13 September 2017.
The Interactive Gambling Amendment Act 2017 effectively ended legal online peer-to-peer poker in Australia. Every major operator withdrew rather than seek the near-impossible task of obtaining an Australian licence under a framework that provided no formal mechanism to actually do so. PokerStars was the last to leave, holding out until the final day in hopes of a last-minute reprieve. It never came.
What remains is a bifurcated landscape: a thriving, well-attended live poker scene concentrated in capital city casino poker rooms and a rapidly growing independent tournament circuit — and a grey-market online ecosystem of offshore platforms that continue to serve Australian players under varying degrees of legal and practical risk.
The Online Poker Ban — A Legislative History
The story of online poker's demise in Australia is worth understanding in detail, because it is not a simple "government banned gambling" narrative. It is a story of regulatory confusion, missed opportunities, and a poker community that very nearly saved itself.
The Original Law — Ambiguous on Poker
The IGA was drafted primarily to address concerns about online casino gambling and problem gambling. Its language was vague enough that offshore poker sites — which are P2P games, not "casino games" against the house — continued to operate freely in Australia for the next 15 years, serving over a million players at their peak.
NSW Premier's Review of Offshore Wagering
Former NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell produced a review noting that Australians were spending significant money on offshore gambling platforms. The review's recommendations targeted offshore wagering and casino gaming. Online poker was a casualty of the broader crackdown that followed — largely because legislators treated it as equivalent to casino gaming rather than a distinctly skill-based card game.
Poker Community Makes Its Case
The Australian Online Poker Alliance (AOPA), led by founder Joseph Del Duca, and Liberal Senator David Leyonhjelm fought vigorously to have poker treated differently from casino gambling in the amendment bill. The Senate's Environment and Communications References Committee heard from players, experts and industry — but its report fell short of the exemption advocates needed.
The Interactive Gambling Amendment Act Takes Effect
The amended IGA came into force. PokerStars, the last major operator remaining, shut down Australian accounts. It emailed Australian players: "The time has sadly come to halt all real money poker play at our tables." 888Poker, PartyPoker and all other major platforms had already withdrawn. An estimated 130,000 regular online poker players lost access to regulated, consumer-protected poker overnight.
Feasibility Studies Promised, Never Delivered
In the weeks after the ban, the AOPA reported that the Minister of Communications had expressed willingness to examine a feasibility study for a licensed, regulated domestic online poker market. Those studies were commissioned but produced no legislative action. The regulated domestic online poker market remains, as of 2025, a policy ambition without a mechanism.
Grey Market Persists; Live Poker Thrives
Offshore platforms continue to serve Australian players despite being blocked by the ACMA. Anecdotal evidence from the player community suggests VPN usage is common among serious online players. Meanwhile, live poker has grown substantially to fill the void — particularly the Australian Poker League's touring circuit, which generated over $20 million in prize pools in 2025.
Live Poker Rooms in Australia
Live poker in Australia is almost entirely concentrated in licensed casino poker rooms. Under Australian law, running fully dealt cash games that take a rake requires a casino licence — this means that outside the major casino properties, real-money cash games essentially cannot operate legally. It is the monopoly structure of Australian live poker, and it has direct consequences for rake.
Crown Melbourne Poker Room
Crown Melbourne's poker room is the undisputed flagship of Australian live poker. Located in the basement of the casino complex, the room features over 50 tables, professional automatic shufflers, a digital waitlist system and a selection of stake levels from $1/$3 to $5/$10 No Limit Hold'em, with Pot Limit Omaha games also running. The room operates daily from midday until 4am, closing only on Christmas Day, Good Friday and ANZAC Day.
Crown is the home of the Aussie Millions and the annual Crown Poker Championship. Weekly tournaments run every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 6:15pm. The room can be crowded during peak hours, particularly on Friday and Saturday nights, and during major tournament series satellites.
A note on buy-in limits: Crown Melbourne imposes a 12-hour daily visit cap on all casino patrons as part of its responsible gambling obligations — a policy implemented following the 2021 royal commission findings. This affects cash game players who play long sessions.
The Star Poker Rooms (Sydney, Brisbane, Gold Coast)
The Star Entertainment Group operates poker rooms at The Star Sydney (Pyrmont), The Star Brisbane (Treasury Casino) and The Star Gold Coast. Sydney's poker room is the busiest outside Melbourne, with a solid range of NLH cash games running most days. Brisbane's Treasury property is more compact but hosts regular tournaments. The Gold Coast property benefits from tourist traffic, particularly during the summer holiday season.
All Star properties are operating under regulatory supervision following the 2022 Bergin Inquiry findings. Poker operations have continued throughout, though some periods of reduced table availability have been reported during the more intense phases of regulatory oversight. The WPT announced three new festival events at The Star Gold Coast in 2025, signalling renewed confidence in the Queensland venue's poker offering.
Other Significant Live Poker Venues
SkyCity Adelaide — the only licensed poker venue in South Australia. Smaller room but a loyal local player base. Hosts periodic tournament series.
Crown Perth — Western Australia's sole casino, now cleared to retain its licence following remediation. The Perth poker room serves a state where no pub or club alternatives exist. Hosts the Perth Poker Championship irregularly.
SkyCity Darwin — Small poker room serving the NT. Limited regular cash games; primarily tournament focused. Notably the jurisdiction with the highest problem gambling rate in Australia.
Wrest Point, Hobart — Australia's first legal casino (1973) has a modest poker room catering primarily to the local Tasmanian player base.
Rake Structures — Australia Has the World's Highest
Rake — the fee the house takes from each pot — is the defining issue of Australian live poker. Put bluntly: Australian casino poker rooms charge some of the highest rake in the world, and the monopolistic licensing structure means there is no competitive pressure to bring it down.
The Great Australian Rake Problem
At Crown Melbourne's $2/$5 game with a $25 cap, at 25–30 hands per hour, between $500 and $750 leaves the table every single hour — straight to the casino. For comparison, Playground Poker Club in Quebec caps rake at $8 in low-stakes games. European casinos typically cap at €5–7. Australian Poker Schedule's analysis describes this as "clearly close to a world record." Players receive no loyalty points, comps or perks in return.
| Venue | Stakes (NLH) | Rake Rate | Cap | Time Charge | Assessment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crown Melbourne | $1/$2–$1/$3 | 10% | $8–$15 | $5/hr | Avoid |
| Crown Melbourne | $2/$5 | 10% | $25 | $10/hr | Extremely High |
| Crown Melbourne | $5/$5–$5/$10 | Time charge only | N/A | $25/hr | Playable |
| Crown Melbourne | $10/$20–$25/$50 NLH | 10% | $30 (reduced from $50) | Included | High but playable |
| The Star (all) | $1/$3–$2/$5 | 10% | $20 | $5/hr | Very High |
| APL Events | Tournament only | Fixed fee | AUD $80 rake on $480 buy-in | N/A | Competitive |
Sources: Australian Poker Schedule rake analysis; TripAdvisor Crown Melbourne poker reviews; Two Plus Two forums (Crown Melbourne thread). Rake structures subject to change; verify directly with venue before playing.
The rake situation has a direct consequence for who can profitably play live poker in Australia: low-stakes cash games ($1/$3, $2/$5) at Crown and The Star are almost certainly negative expected value for all but the very best players in those games. The time charge model at mid-stakes ($5/$5, $5/$10) is more manageable. This contrasts sharply with global poker hubs like Las Vegas, London and Eastern Europe where low-stakes games are viable for recreational and semi-serious players.
The issue has been openly debated in the Australian poker community for years. Australian Poker Schedule and multiple poker media outlets have documented the problem, but with no meaningful competition for casino licences and no legal alternative venues, operators have little incentive to reduce rake.
Poker Variants Offered in Australia
Australian casino poker rooms offer a range of game types, though No Limit Hold'em dominates by table count and traffic. The following variants are available across Crown Melbourne and The Star properties.
No Limit Texas Hold'em
The dominant format at every Australian poker room. Stakes from $1/$2 to $5/$10+ run daily at Crown Melbourne. The standard game for tournaments and the most common cash game variant by far.
Pot Limit Omaha
PLO is the second-most popular variant and has grown significantly over the past decade. Typically available at $1/$3, $2/$5 and $5/$5 stakes. High-stakes PLO ($25/$50 and higher) runs at Crown Melbourne on demand.
Limit Omaha & Mixed
Crown Melbourne offers Limit Omaha and mixed games ($20/$40 and $40/$80 Limit Hold'em/Omaha) for experienced players. These games run less frequently and require a quorum of interested players.
Short Deck Hold'em
Short deck (with 36-card deck) is available on request at high-stakes levels. Has gained global popularity on the high-roller circuit and Crown Melbourne runs it during the Aussie Millions and special events.
Bounty & Mystery Bounty
Tournament formats featuring bounties on players' heads have become hugely popular in the Australian poker calendar. The Mystery Bounty format, where players draw a card at the start of Day 2 to reveal their bounty amount, was a highlight of the 2026 Aussie Millions.
Chinese Poker / Pineapple
Open Face Chinese Poker and Pineapple variants have small but dedicated followings in Australian poker rooms, particularly among regular players who want variety. Available on request at Crown Melbourne.
The Australian Poker League
Australia's Most Active Tournament Circuit
With the Aussie Millions absent from the calendar for six years (2020–2026), the Australian Poker League (APL) stepped into the void to become the country's most prolific live poker organisation. The APL runs a touring circuit with no fixed home venue — events are hosted at pubs and clubs across Australia, making it the most accessible live poker option for players outside major capital cities.
The APL Million Main Event, with a $1,500 guaranteed prize pool, drew 3,375 entries in September 2025 — making it the largest live poker event on Australian soil in 2025. The APL also runs a 6-Max Event ($400 buy-in), a range of smaller satellites and regional series across QLD, NSW, VIC and SA. In November 2025, the APL confirmed a rake increase for its 2026 events, with Main Event rake rising to $80 (from $60) on a $400 + $80 = $480 total buy-in.
The Aussie Millions — History and Return
The Aussie Millions is the most prestigious poker tournament series in the Southern Hemisphere and one of the most storied events on the global poker calendar. First held at Crown Melbourne in 1998 as the Crown Australian Poker Championship, it began with just 74 players, a $74,000 prize pool, and a Limit Hold'em format. Its growth over the following two decades made it one of the top five or six live tournament series in the world by prize pool.
Inaugural Crown Australian Poker Championship
74 players entered. Buy-in was AUD $1,000. Played in Limit Hold'em format — the standard competitive format of the era. Winner Alex Horowitz took home $74,000. Nobody could have anticipated what this modest event would become.
Prize pool: AUD $74,000Joe Hachem Wins the WSOP Main Event — Australian Poker Explodes
Melbourne chiropractor turned poker professional Joe Hachem outlasted 5,618 players at the World Series of Poker to win $7.5 million — the largest poker prize in history at the time. His victory — celebrated with an Australian flag and a booming "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!" from the crowd — put Australian poker on the world map and triggered a domestic poker boom that supercharged the Aussie Millions in subsequent years.
WSOP prize: USD $7,500,000Record Entry — 780 Players
The 2008 Aussie Millions Main Event attracted a record 780 players, generating a $7.8 million prize pool. Alexander Kostritsyn, a 21-year-old Russian, won $1.65 million. The series featured ten events and a $250,000 Challenge that was billed as the highest buy-in tournament in poker history at the time.
Prize pool: AUD $7,800,000 · Buy-in: AUD $10,500Peak Attendance — 822 Players
The 2019 edition set the all-time attendance record with 822 players and a prize pool of AUD $8.22 million. It would also prove to be one of the last before the series fell into an extended crisis, first delayed by COVID-19 restrictions and then indefinitely suspended due to Crown Melbourne's regulatory investigations and money laundering findings.
Prize pool: AUD $8,220,000 · All-time record fieldThe Return — After a Six-Year Hiatus
The Aussie Millions returned to Crown Melbourne from 24 April to 10 May 2026, ending six years of absence. The series featured 18 events with buy-ins from AUD $1,500 to $25,000 and an estimated $14 million in guaranteed prize pools — though the actual total exceeded AUD $22.5 million. The AUD $10,600 Main Event attracted 770 entries and a prize pool of $7.7 million. Malcolm Trayner won $1,667,050 for the title. University student Gening Dai also won the $1,500 Mystery Bounty event for over $170,000. Crown Melbourne CEO Ed Domingo described the return as "a celebration of Crown and the world-class experiences we offer our guests."
Total prize pools: AUD $22.5M · Main Event entries: 770Other Live Tournament Circuits
Beyond the Aussie Millions and the APL, several other series bring international and domestic poker talent to Australian venues.
| Series | Organiser | Venues | Buy-in Range | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aussie Millions | Crown Melbourne | Crown Melbourne | AUD $1,500 – $25,000 | Southern Hemisphere's most prestigious; returned 2026 after 6-year hiatus |
| Australian Poker League (APL) | APL | Pub/club circuit nationally | AUD $60 – $480 | Largest volume; most accessible; $20M+ prize pools in 2025 |
| World Poker Tour (WPT) Australia | WPT | The Star Gold Coast | AUD $660 – $5,000+ | Three new festivals announced at The Star Gold Coast for 2025; WPT main tour event planned September 2025 |
| Australian Poker Tour (APT) | APT | Various — QLD focus | AUD $200 – $2,000 | Regional touring circuit; Gold Coast events at Southport Sharks popular |
| Crown Poker Championship | Crown Melbourne | Crown Melbourne | AUD $200 – $5,000 | Annual October/November series; smaller than Aussie Millions but well attended |
| WSOP International Circuit | WSOP / GGPoker | Various Australian venues | AUD $500 – $3,500 | Gold ring events; has visited Australia multiple times. Online WSOP satellites blocked for Australians |
Sources: Pokerfuse; PokerNews; Australian Poker Schedule; Poker Media Australia.
Australia's Greatest Poker Players
Despite the online ban cutting off a generation of Australian players from global grinders, Australia has produced some of the most formidable live tournament players in the world. The top players on the all-time money list have collectively earned well over $50 million in live tournament winnings, with multiple WSOP bracelets between them.
Michael Addamo
$24.5M+ live earningsBorn in Melbourne in 1994, Addamo began grinding $200 weekly tournaments at Crown Casino while studying to be an actuary. He burst onto the international scene in 2016 and has since become one of the most feared players in the world's elite high-roller circuit. A four-time WSOP bracelet winner, his style is defined by extreme GTO aggression and large overbets that leave opponents in maximum discomfort. His career-best live score of $3,402,000 came in the 2021 Super High Roller Bowl VI. As of August 2025, his Hendon Mob total stands at $24,488,994.
Joe Hachem
$12.7M+ live earningsJoe Hachem is the most recognisable name in Australian poker. Born in Lebanon and raised in Melbourne, he was a chiropractor until a medical condition ended that career — at which point he turned to poker full-time. His 2005 WSOP Main Event victory over 5,618 players for $7.5 million remains the single most significant moment in the history of Australian poker. His famous "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!" celebration triggered a domestic poker boom. The following year he won the WPT Five Diamond Classic for $2.2 million. He remains an active participant in the poker world and a major figure in the community.
Kahle Burns
$10.7M+ live earningsBurns is from Geelong and initially pursued finance before turning professional. He is best known for winning two WSOP Europe bracelets in a single week in 2019 — an extraordinary feat that placed him among the elite of international tournament poker. His style is described as aggressive and calculated, and he has performed consistently across both live and online high-stakes events. He has been inducted into the Australian Poker Hall of Fame and continues to compete at the highest levels globally.
Jeff Lisandro
$5M+ live earningsJeff Lisandro is the Australian player with the most WSOP bracelets of any of his countrymen. He won three bracelets in 2009 alone — all in stud variants — a remarkable achievement that demonstrated his mastery of non-Hold'em games. A regular figure in Australian casino poker rooms and international circuits for over two decades, Lisandro is regarded as one of the most technically complete players Australia has produced.
Robert Campbell
$5M+ live earningsRobert Campbell won two WSOP bracelets in Las Vegas in 2019 and famously won the WSOP Player of the Year award that same year, holding off challenges from Daniel Negreanu and Shaun Deeb to the final event. His composure and consistency across the entire summer series demonstrated a level of sustained excellence that placed him among the best tournament players of his generation. Campbell is widely respected for his calm under pressure and versatility across formats.
Jeff Rossiter
$6.65M live earningsRossiter made his name as an Australian online poker grinder before accumulating $6.65 million in live tournament winnings — placing him fourth on the all-time Australian money list. His most notable live result was a fourth-place finish in the Aussie Millions Main Event for $440,000. He has since pivoted to cryptocurrency trading. His trajectory from online grinder to live specialist is emblematic of many Australian players who built their games online before the 2017 ban.
Top Australian poker players by live tournament earnings (USD). Source: The Hendon Mob database, 2025.
The Online Grey Market
Despite the 2017 ban, online poker has not disappeared for Australian players — it has simply moved underground. A number of offshore platforms continue to accept Australian registrations, processing payments through methods that circumvent Australian banking restrictions. The player community is well aware of these options, and their use is widespread, particularly among serious grinders who have few viable live alternatives.
How Australians Access Online Poker in 2025
The most commonly discussed offshore options in the Australian poker community include Ignition Casino (which operates an Australia-specific version with anonymous tables), and a small number of other platforms that have not been geo-blocked by the ACMA. Payment processing typically runs through cryptocurrency, e-wallets or third-party payment agents — each carrying practical risks of account closure or fund seizure if the operator detects Australian IP addresses.
GGPoker and PokerStars — the world's two largest poker platforms — do not accept Australian players and actively geo-block Australian IPs. Some players use VPNs to access these platforms, but this breaches the operator's terms of service and can result in voided winnings and banned accounts.
The practical reality: The grey market offers Australian players worse consumer protections, more difficult banking, anonymous play (which some dislike), and the perpetual risk of the operator disappearing. Many serious players have simply moved their game entirely to live tournaments and cash games.
The ACMA's website blocking programme, under which hundreds of unlicensed gambling sites have been directed to be blocked by Australian ISPs, has had limited practical effect on the poker grey market. Determined players can access blocked sites through DNS changes or VPNs within minutes. The policy debate about whether a regulated, licensed domestic online poker framework would produce better public health outcomes than the current prohibited-but-persistent grey market has never been resolved in Australia's favour.
Home Games and Private Poker
Private poker games — home games among friends — occupy a different legal position from commercial poker rooms. The key legal principle in most Australian jurisdictions is that private games are legal as long as the organiser does not take a rake, commission or any financial benefit from running the game. A game where friends play for money, with no house cut, is generally not unlawful. A game where someone is charging "table fees" or taking a percentage of pots is operating an unlicensed gambling venue.
This distinction is significant because it creates a legal avenue for recreational poker that does not require a casino licence. Poker clubs operating on a subscription or membership model — where the fee is for facilities rather than a rake on play — have historically existed in a grey area, with their legal status varying by state and the specific structure of their operation.
For those interested in casual home game poker, the APL's pub-based tournaments operate within licensed venues and provide a legal, regulated alternative to backroom private games.
