Guide to Online Blackjack Australia
The game of blackjack is one that a great many people are familiar with, and while it may take new players a little time to learn to be able to play blackjack for real money, it is an easy game to learn and even pretty easy to master with a little time and patience.
The idea of the game is of course to beat the dealer, (and not to get 21 as some might believe), with cards having their numerical value, face cards being worth 10, and aces being worth either 1 or 11 as the player decides. Players are dealt two cards initially and then have the option to take more cards, to hit, or to stand with what they have, and put their hand against whatever the dealer can manage.
So there are decisions to be made at the blackjack table, and some interesting ones as well. A lot of them involve taking into account what the dealer’s first card is, where you want to be more aggressive with certain dealer cards showing and a lot less so with others. There’s also the strategies of doubling down, splitting, and taking insurance, so there’s a fair bit to know if you want to play the game optimally, although it’s not hard to learn really and only involves remembering a few basics and practice. One of the advantages of internet casinos is that you can play blackjack games for free and polish your skills, before you place real money on the table.
By the way, the most popular blackjack variant in Australia is Pontoon, but you should know that online pontoon is a completely different version of this game (British one). If you wish to play Australian pontoon, then in online casinos it goes by its UK/USA name, Spanish 21.
Best Online Casinos Australia 2024
Gambling in Australia
The popularity of the game of blackjack extends worldwide now, and this certainly includes Australia. Australians absolutely love to gamble, and their per capita gambling expenditure, of almost $1000 for every man, woman, and child in the country, is by far the world’s highest.
Slot machines, or pokies as they are called here, are king, but this is only the case because of the fact that pokies are so rampant. Australia has almost 200,000 land based slot machines, an enormous amount and 5 times as many as their nearest competitor, the U.S., in spite of the fact that the U.S. has about 15 times more people.
Australia does have a few casinos, 19 of them in fact, with several larger ones, which do offer blackjack, but this isn’t a lot to satisfy the demand of 23 million people, and it wasn’t until online blackjack became available that Australians could really dig into the game and get their fill.
Is it Legal to Play Online Blackjack for Real Money?
Gambling is generally legal in Australia, and is decided on the state level, so laws do differ somewhat between states, with it being permitted in all states but Western Australia.
As far as online gambling goes, it is perfectly legal for Australians to gamble on whatever sites they want, although online gambling sites located in Australia are not permitted to accept Australian players. It’s legal to both gamble online and run an online gambling site here though.
Unlike in some countries, the government pretty much stands aside when it comes to online gambling and isn’t interested in interfering with it (except the rule we mentioned before which is referred to as Interactive Gambling Act 2001), so this is as wide open and free market as these things go. There is generally a price to be paid when it comes to regulation, in most jurisdictions anyway, where the government places restrictions on the market, and also increases the cost of playing by levying additional taxes.
Gambling is tax free in Australia though and this is another benefit of playing blackjack here, you don’t have to worry about paying a portion of your winnings to the government, which is a beautiful thing. So you can just go ahead and gamble freely and all you want without any such concerns. If the site is located in Australia, they will be subject to tax, as all businesses are, but online casinos tend to be located in the most tax friendly jurisdictions, and this has little to do with players in any case, especially with blackjack, which has standard odds regardless.
Given all this, it is no wonder why gambling is so popular and widespread in Australia, and with the coming of online casinos, the game of blackjack has now taken its rightful place in Australia as well as one of the most popular games out there. While Australia bans advertising from gambling operators, they can only regulate domestic advertising, and online sites generally are located elsewhere and aren’t subject to Australian laws anyway, so the word is getting out just fine.
We’ve sure come a long way lately, with the ability to sit down to a game of blackjack any time we want now, and even from wherever we want with the coming of mobile blackjack, where you can now play on your mobile devices as well. For Australia online blackjack players, it doesn’t get much better than that.
Live Dealer Tables
Live dealer tables were introduced several years ago and were quickly adopted by most players worldwide. At this point, this is the closest you can get to real casino experience, before Virtual Reality casinos kick in. At this point only about 33% of Australian online casinos offer live dealer blackjack games, so don’t take this for granted and check before you sign up.
One thing you should know is that in most cases, regular video machine blackjacks offer lower house edge and allow lower stakes. That’s quite natural since live tables carry high expanses and the casinos have to ramp up the stakes to cover them.