Australian Government to Ban Online Gambling?

If reports circling around the Australian media are proven to be correct then Australian gambling could be placed into a similar situation as the United States. In the past couple of days we have seen a reported blacklist appear on the internet. Wikileaks.org who have also revealed other private blacklists from countries like Thailand were the ones to show the public initially.

This list was initially created by the Australian Communications and Media Authority in an attempt to start banning sites of a malicious and illegal nature. On the top of their priorities were sites relating to child porn and other material of a similar nature. They have miraculously extended their definition of illegal material and several online gambling sites have been named on the list.

Since the blacklist was released to the public Senator Conroy has made a statement to inform us that the list that has been seen is not the real one. He cites the fact that their list only had around 1100 sites on it whereas the list published has about 2300 on it. He also went on to say that sites found to be publishing the list could be liable to criminal charges.

The law that is being enforced was actually created way back in 2001. The Interactive Gambling Law has never caused much of a problem as they have been relaxed about enforcing it, until now that is. It remains to be seen as to whether common sense will prevail so online gaming sites can be removed from the blacklist.