Australia’s Online Gambling Regulator Continues Battle Against Unlicensed Domains

Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is fighting a tough battle to prevent access to unlicensed gambling websites that offer gambling services to players in this country without the permit.

The gambling watchdog may resort to provisions of the Interactive Gambling Act of 2001 to motivate Australian Internet service providers to block locals from gaining access to unlicensed online gambling domains.

The Surge in iGaming

Online gambling rates have surged during the last year among Australians, because of the pandemic-related lockdowns.

Apparently, the regulator has already added 18 of these websites to the blacklist last month, taking the historical tally up to 222.

The ten iGaming domains that may be marketing their services to punters in Australia have not yet been dealt with, even though the regulator has been aware of them for over two months.

Some of these illicit and suspicious domains include Fair Go Casino, Two Up Casino, True Blue Casino, XPokies, PlayCroco, and more brands.

The High Value Market

The online gambling market of Asia-Pacific is worth around $70 billion. ACMA has disclosed that it is proceeding with the enforcement and disruption options available, including website blocking.

The investigative efforts by the regulator have been halted by the software from internet infrastructure innovator Cloudflare that shields sites’ registrations.

The use of this screening technology – according to the ACMA spokesperson – is against the Interactive Gambling Act of 2001 but has seen over 86% of illegal providers flee Australian market after the formal warning have been issued to them.

The unlicensed domains in Australia can face a fine up to $1.1 million for every day of servicing local punters without a license.

Complex Environment

ACMA began blocking access to such iGaming sites in November 2019. This has been deemed effective in disrupting gambling services being provided into the Australian market.

A challenging and complex gambling environment was commented on by the ACMA spokesperson:

“Some of the illegal gambling services whose sites have been blocked have either withdrawn of their own accord or have not taken any action to circumvent the blocks. Others have sought to circumvent the blocks by launching mirror sites. We monitor and block mirror sites, sometimes repetitively. But even where this cycle is happening, we have found that the blocking is effective in reducing the amount of Australian traffic to the site.”

Source:

“Online casinos targeting Australians risk million-dollar fines for slice of $65bn pie”, theguardian.com, March 27, 2021.