Italian country singer has found a home in outback Queensland.
Nicole Piccone, 24, has moved from her home in Italy to outback Queensland to fulfil her country music dreams.
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ABC News
42 minutes ago
- ABC News
An online casino banned in Australia is streamed live from Melbourne
Four young men are locked in a makeshift prison cell at an undisclosed Melbourne location. Under the watchful eye of several security cameras, the inmates attempt to regain their freedom in an unusual way: by spinning slots on an online casino. It is all part of an online game show run by Shuffle — an Australian-run online casino that is banned in its own backyard. Shuffle accepts cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin to place bets, bypassing banks and other institutions that could provide oversight and transparency to its operations. Under Australian law, online casinos are required to block Australian users from accessing their services. And yet key executives at Shuffle are gambling on the company's own live broadcasts, plainly located in Australia as they do so. Ishan Haque has been central in the casino's marketing efforts, which have included recruiting an army of what he calls "micro-influencers". He was one of the four men locked in the fake prison cell: his three co-conspirators were all gambling streamers based in the US who had flown to Melbourne to take part in the stunt. When not participating in special events, the casino's affiliated streamers broadcast themselves gambling from their bedrooms and, in some cases, purpose-built studios. They ride the highs and lows, yelling over the microphone as they win and lose. Some regularly complain that they can not afford to pay rent and beg their audience for more money to gamble with. "They might have 9,000 followers," Haque explained in a rare podcast appearance with gambling investor Tom Waterhouse, "but they're highly engaging in the community". As affiliates of the casino, these streamers are entitled to a cut of the money lost by players they have referred to Shuffle. This sets up a complicated dynamic: the more their fans lose, the more the streamers stand to gain. Mark R Johnson, a gaming culture researcher at the University of Sydney, has watched dozens of hours of gambling live streams across various online casinos. Many streamers demonstrate signs of disordered thinking around gambling, says Dr Johnson, as do the viewers commenting in their live chatrooms. "From an ethical perspective, it's sad to watch these harmful ideas be perpetuated and go unchallenged," he told the ABC. The affiliate relationships offered by online casinos — and the promotion of gambling they represent — have created a "paradigm shift" in live streaming culture, he said. It is no longer a community focused on the shared love of a game: there is now money to be extracted from one's fans. It was Shuffle's much larger Australian-owned competitor, Stake, that brought this form of influencer marketing into the mainstream, signing some of the world's popular streamers to multi-million-dollar deals. Contact Julian Fell at tips@ if you have any information about crypto casinos in Australia. Most Friday afternoons, Haque is at Shuffle headquarters in Melbourne's CBD, hosting the company's weekly lottery. The young entrepreneur wears a black suit and purple tie, and engages in constant patter throughout the broadcast. On a recent week, the jackpot was around $3.8 million — a sign of the casino's growing popularity. Shuffle is accepting around $2 billion worth of deposits each month, according to analytics service Tanzanite. This puts Shuffle among the top five "crypto casinos" globally, just two years after its launch. The largest, Stake, processes roughly as many bets as Ladbrokes' global parent company Entain. All this success comes despite the bans on Shuffle and Stake across some of the world's largest online gambling markets: Australia, the US and the UK. "Due to licensing restrictions, we cannot accept players from Australia," visitors are informed when trying to access the site from a blocked region. "If you're using a VPN, please disable it and try again." It is a handy hint — a quick Google search of "VPN" returns pages and pages of results offering the exact product needed to bypass Shuffle's geo-blocker. Many of them are free. By providing a random address in Tokyo, the ABC was able to "verify" its account, instructed to make a deposit in crypto, and even given the option to buy it directly on the site with a credit card (Australian cards are not accepted). There was no proof of residence or identity needed. On the live stream, Haque interacts with viewers in the chat room, wiling away the time until the lottery is to be drawn. Part of the patter involves spinning the slots and giving away the winnings to those watching. All of this is happening from the Shuffle office in Australia, where the service is supposed to be banned. When asked about this practice, Australia's media regulator, ACMA, said it knew of the company but was not aware of its affiliates using its products in Australia. "We will seek additional information from Shuffle about this," said an ACMA spokesperson. Many players around the world have found ways around Shuffle's processes for checking identities and locations. The three streamers who were invited to Melbourne for Shuffle's fake prison game show were all based in the US, where online "crypto casinos" are also banned. Another prominent Shuffle promoter was a 19-year-old Texan resident, who was later charged with hacking and fraud offences in the US. Before his alleged crimes came to light, he was a well-known Shuffle affiliate who often exchanged friendly banter with Shuffle's staff on social media, including co-founder Noah Dummett. There is no suggestion that Shuffle knew about this affiliate's alleged criminality while he was partnered with the casino. Yet another of the casino's former partners was in close contact with Shuffle's owners. In private messages seen by the ABC, she told co-founder Dummett all sorts of things about herself, including her location in Nebraska, while she was gambling on the platform and referring users to it. Properly regulated casinos — both online and offline — are covered by strict anti-money laundering laws, requiring them to "know your customer" when funds are transferred in and out of their accounts. In a public forum post, Dummett claimed the affiliate had used multiple forged ID documents and was therefore banned on the site. "I was not aware of her United States residence," he wrote. "I would've closed her account sooner if I had proof of this." Shuffle and its owners did not respond to multiple requests for comment. While Shuffle is headquartered in a Melbourne skyscraper, it is licensed on the gambling-friendly Caribbean island of Curaçao through a separate business entity. The former Dutch colony offers a favourable tax system to online businesses. Since 2020, businesses in Curaçao pay no tax on income derived from overseas customers — for an online casino, that is almost all of it. Shuffle is registered at an unassuming house on a gravel road in the capital of Willemstad, an address it shares with at least one other well-known online casino. The global nature of these operations makes it difficult for regulators to deal with them. A casino could be operated out of Australia, serve Japanese customers and hold a Curaçao gaming licence — not to mention the streamers promoting them from other parts of the globe. Several online casinos registered in Curaçao have been issued warnings by Australia's media regulator, ACMA, for illegally targeting Australians. Many have had their sites blocked by Australian internet providers at ACMA's request, though usually these do not have geoblocking features and even explicitly advertise to Australian customers. But there are calls for the regulator to go further. In a 2023 report titled You Win Some, You Lose More, a parliamentary committee handed down several recommendations about how to reduce the harms associated with online gambling. The committee recommended blocking transactions to illegal gambling operators, and "stronger sanctions for companies and known individuals who profit from illegal gambling". It also called for better collaboration with overseas regulators, especially in places like Curaçao where illegal sites proliferate. Two years on, little appears to have changed. Australians own and operate three of the world's largest crypto casinos — two of which have made their owners into billionaires, with Shuffle doing its best to make it three. The Australian government has not yet formally responded to the 2023 report.
ABC News
5 hours ago
- ABC News
Spacey Jane 6 Pack 2025
Ahead of their appearance at One Night Stand in Busselton, WA, Spacey Jane stops by triple j Unearthed HQ to drop off their 6 pack! 6 tracks from 6 local emerging artists who they've been luvin' at the minute. The triple j Unearthed veterans are gearing up to release their highly anticipated third album and are headed on a huge national tour (with plenty of sold out shows already). Scope out their tour dates below and hit play above to hear their picks and why they love them! Australian artists getting around Australian artists? Ya love to see it.
SBS Australia
12 hours ago
- SBS Australia
First Nations festival gives a taste of an ancient culture
On a warm night in the town of Jabiru in the Northern Territory - locals and Traditional Owners are uncovering a ground oven, with food for hundreds of people. The cook-up is part of an annual food event named Taste of Kakadu, connecting visitors with people who live in Jabiru. It is an event though which First Nations' culture is shared and celebrated. Although buffalo is an animal that was introduced during colonisation - first on the Tiwi Islands around 1825 - today, this shared meal is opening conversations among people who have never been introduced to the delicacy. "It's my first time tasting buffalo and I really like it. This is my first time really connecting with Aboriginal culture, and I really love it" For 22-year-old Siah Miargu, it's also a time to grow her skills as a junior ranger and guide. Guests are sharing a meal of barramundi, bush potatoes and a sweet treat, with Siah showing how to eat "wunt wunt". "This is wunt wunt… we just open up, we normally just clean this out, or eat it like this. I tell them the story how our ancestors walked around this area to look for bush tuckers." Yellow Water and the surrounding floodplain is the heart of Kakadu and is an important food source for those living on Country, including up to a million Magpie geese, a bird that is special to Traditional Owners. Paul Iskov is a chef from Western Australia who is cooking at the Taste of Kakadu. His role involves not just preparing traditional cuisine, but understanding the origin of each ingredient. "It's really nice to hear those stories about ingredients that connect country up here. The water lily's are down where you catch the barramundi and this cheeky yam is pretty much on the side of the bank as well, so all those ingredients tie together." Paul is known among chefs as Yoda and has travelled to Kakadu many times to develop culinary dishes - and the Kakadu plum is one that has captured global attention. Queensland researchers in September last year, found the fruit has antioxidant properties. Scientific research, now reinforcing traditional knowledge that has been known for thousands of years. And it is knowledge like this that has enriched the experience of visitors, experiencing the First Nations event. "There definitely needs to be more stuff like this, if this was more frequent, you'd definitely get more people looking into it." Creating opportunities to listen and learn.
