ACMA Shuts Down Six Offshore Gambling Sites

After issuing a warning to Proxous Advanced Solutions over a series of breaches of the 2001 Interactive Gambling Act at the beginning of the month, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has announced that it has blocked six new offshore gambling and affiliate marketing websites. The ACMA has asked Australian internet service providers to block the six affiliate marketing and gambling platforms that were found to be operating outside the law in Australia. The list included Wineramma, Win Paradise, Casino Moons, Extra Vegas, Gamblers Lab, and LegitGamblingSites.com.

Australians Using Illegal Gambling Sites Risk Losing Their Money

The ACMA has issued a helpful reminder for Australian players regarding the risks associated with services that may look legitimate on the surface, but which are less likely to “have important customer protections” in place. In other words, customers from Down Under who decide to take a chance and use illegal gambling services are also at high risk of losing their money and never getting it back.

The ACMA website provides advanced information on the perils of online gambling websites that are illegally offering their services to players in the country. There, players can find specific steps on how to protect themselves from illegal operators of gambling platforms. The ACMA also offers detailed information on how to formulate a complaint against an illegal website.

The Operators Were Breaching the Interactive Gambling Act 2001

ACMA’s investigation determined that the six operators were breaching the regulations part of the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 since they were offering illegal online gambling services to Australian customers. The request to have these websites blocked is just one of the enforcements that the ACMA can use to keep casino players in the country protected against illegal forms of online gambling. Since November 2017 when it initiated its first website blocking request, the ACMA managed to block 568 illegal gambling and affiliate platforms. Plus, more than 170 gambling services outside the law were completely removed from the market in Australia in the past four years and nine months.

The Interactive Gambling Act establishes the regulations that companies providing or advertising gambling services must comply with in Australia. The Act also refers to all forms of gambling taking place in the online world, via websites and apps or using the phone browser alternative. The same Act clearly bans online casinos, wagering on lottery outcomes, sports betting services that do not have a license issued in Australia, and in-play sports betting services. 

At the end of June, the ACMA announced it would introduce a new self-exclusion register that will allow bettors to exclude themselves from any form of gambling for as long as they need to.