Australian online poker players have woken up to the news that their ability to play the game they love, in the form they know it, will end within the next 30-days after the Senate passed a bill into law that will send their providers scurrying to their offshore servers.

It’s bad but not unexpected news.

Australians who rely on online poker to pay the bills, and millions who play the game as a form of entertainment, are forced to make different choices, after the Senate passed The Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill 2016 into law on August 9.

With online poker an ant in the stampede of online gambling games scurrying around trying to avoid being stamped on by the Australian government, the news is not a surprise. What is shocking, is the decision to rubber-stamp the bill came days after the Environment, and Communications References Committee, sat down with the Australian Online Poker Alliance (AOPA), some professional poker players, and industry experts, in an attempt to separate online poker from the ensuing madness.