Players in two of the world’s biggest gambling cultures – the U.S. and Australia – got some news regarding possible decriminalization of online gaming, with legislation in the former softening to the reality of the average person’s devotion to personal freedom in computer use.

In the U.S., the Department of Justice tweaked the Wire Act of 1961 just before the year turned. In its decision, DoJ officials stated that the Wire Act, often used legally in cases against legal online gambling, actually contains “prohibitions [that] relate solely to sport-related gambling activities in interstate and foreign commerce.”

Most in the industry believe that this reversal will open the floodgates: “Internet gambling is about to explode across the nation, made legal under state law,” said Whittier Law School professor/gambling law expert I. Nelson Rose.

Meanwhile, an Southern Cross University study of over 6,500 people finding that “50% of participants had taken up [online] gambling in the past six years, making it the fastest-growing form of gambling in the country” is making waves in Australian media.

SCU professor Dr. Sally Gainsbury said that Australia’s “existing legislation [does] not discourage people from using overseas gambling sites.” Senator Nick Xenophon, long against legalized gambling, warned that “The next tidal wave of problem gamblers will come from online gambling unless we take urgent action now.”