Online Poker » Best Poker Sites » Best Australian Poker Sites

Previously relatively unknown in the online poker world, Australia began to receive a great deal of online poker attention after a great deal of Australians began signing up at the best Australian poker sites following the 2005 main event win by the Australian player Joe Hachem. The best Australian poker sites offer a wide variety of tournaments - especially qualifiers and satellites for the major Australian poker tournament - the Aussie Millions (the sixth biggest poker tournament worldwide). Poker sites catering to Australian players often offer special promotions and events just for Australian poker players. The best Australian poker sites accept the Australian Dollar as a primary currency and provide customer support and software in the country's preferred language - English.

Best Australian Poker Site - Full Tilt Poker

Full Tilt Poker is one of the best Australian poker sites and features yearly satellite qualifiers for the major Australian poker tournament - the Aussie Millions. The prize package for this event featured on Full Tilt Poker is worth 15,000AUD. Although the Australian Dollar is not accepted at Full Tilt Poker, they offer free currency exchanges into the USD for all Australians.

Best Australian Poker Site - Absolute Poker

Absolute Poker is one of the few online poker sites that accepts deposits made in the Australian Dollar. Absolute Poker's main site is only available in English. Absolute Poker accepts the favorite Australian payment options such as eWalletXpress, Neteller, Moneybookers and Click2Pay.

Best Australian Poker Site - PokerStars

PokerStars only accepts the United States Dollar as a viable currency but provides currency exchange information to all Australian players before processing their Australian Dollar deposit. Many of the most popular Australian deposit options are accepted at PokerStars such as Moneybookers, Neteller, Visa, Mastercard and Click2Pay.

Legality of Online Poker in Australia

When the Interactive Gambling Act was passed in 2001, many Australians wondered if it was still legal to play online poker in Australia. In fact, the Interactive Gambling Act simply banned online poker rooms from operating within the borders of Australia - actually including language that made it illegal for an online poker room to offer its services to Australian residents. However, Australian poker players quickly realized that the laws passed by Australia had no jurisdiction over the rest of the world. This law was passed as a way to protect Australians from online poker play and not to prevent them from doing so.

For this reason, online poker play is entirely legal in for Australians and the best Australian poker sites can continue to offer their services to residents of the country. To make the law even more confusing, the Interactive Gambling Act did not prevent financial companies from allowing their customers to make deposits and withdrawals to online poker sites. Australia still maintains a brick and mortar poker presence with two large casinos - the Crown Casino and Star City Hotel and Casino, located in Melbourne and Sydney, respectively. There are no laws forbidding large poker tournaments from being hosted in Australia and many professional poker players still reside in the country.

Best Australian Poker Sites - Language and Currency

Luckily for Australians, their preferred language, English, is widely supported through customer support lines and web site software at the best Australian poker sites around the world. In fact, there are very few poker sites around the world that do not normally function almost entirely in the English language.

The most common currency used by Australians to play online poker for real money is the Australian Dollar (also referred to as the AUD). Unfortunately, there are few poker sites that offer deposit, withdrawals and game play using the Australian Dollar. However, the best Australian poker sites offer free currency exchanges for players that wish to make a deposit in the Australian Dollar. In addition, they will list the currency exchange rates so that you are sure how much of your Australian Dollar is being wagered at any given time.

Best Australian Poker Sites - Deposit Options

The best Australian poker sites will accept the most popular Australian online poker payment method - Neteller. Neteller is an electronic wallet that allows players to fund their account using their bank account or credit card and then use their account to fund their best Australian poker site account. Many additional ewallets are available at the best Australian poker sites such as Moneybookers and eWalletXpress. The best Australian poker sites do not charge any fees for processing a deposit made by using an electronic wallet. In additional, most electronic wallet deposits to poker sites are processed in no more than 15 seconds - most of the time processed instantly. It does take a few minutes to set up an electronic wallet account, however, so you should set aside some time before expecting to make your first deposit.

Another popular deposit options accepted by the best Australian poker sites is the electronic check. When you first decide to write an electronic check to one of the best Australian poker sites, you must visit the cashier page and write down the information provided there for echeck destinations. You can provide this information to your bank (either online or at the physical bank) when you write the echeck. You will be charged a small fee (depending on your bank) to send the echeck but the best Australian poker sites will not charge you a fee for processing an electronic check deposit.