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Search Engines Break AU Online Gambling Ban?
An anonymous reader writes "According to a ZDNet report, authorities in Australia are investigating Google and a few other search engines for possible breach of the country's online gambling laws. The Interactive Gambling Act 2001 prohibits advertising of gambling services on Web sites where 'it is likely that the majority of that site's users are physically present in Australia'. Banned services include online casino-style gaming services such as roulette, poker, craps, online poker machines and blackjack. Breaching the Act carries a maximum penalty of AU$220,000 ($168,000) per day for individuals and AU$1.1 million ($843,000) per day for corporations."
... Australians have been unable to access their various stock brokerages through Google.
Seriously, banning gambling has got to be one of the more evident forms of government paternalism. Business is about evaluating risks and taking them. It just happens that gambling is typically a bad risk.
And sure, some people can be habitual gamblers... but that applies to just about any other activity in life.
If you try and make stupidity illegal, you'll never want for laws.
___
It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
Google can toss a set of statistics towards the cops showing the sheer amount of accesses from everywhere _ELSE_ compared to Australia. That overrides the majority requirement, I'd think.
This is probably referring to the Google Australia site. Still, it's enraging that Australia, or any other country, thinks it's acceptable to infringe on people's fundamental freedom of speech.
Is google really a web 'site'? If you go to google Australia You're presented with very little more than a web-facing interface to a search-engine.
Certainly, if you type in 'Casinos in Melbourne' you will probably find a lot of adverts at the side of your search - but the ads are usually fairly relevant to what *you* (mr consumer) wanted to find anyway.
Ripping an new rectum in the fabric of spacetime.
Anyone else sick of this stuff?
Say Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo got together and cut Australia off for one day with a black screen of "Search Unavailable Today; Contact the Australian the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts for more information".
-- Terry
The search engine case aside (probbably far more complicated with Google having physical presence in most countries), how can Australia hope to regulate a website that's neither physically in Australia, nor run by Australians?
If the news article is right (and it's certainly possible it's completely wrong), all that has to be true is that mostly Australians visit the site, and online gambling is advertised. So if I (A US citizen) setup a website that Australians really like, then put advertising for gambling sites on it, I've somehow broken Australian law.
This whole law sounds very fishy. Is Australia going to seek extradition for anyone running a website targeting Australians that advertises gambling (and later on maybe whatever else they don't like)?
To any Australians complaining about how the US wants to extend control of the law beyond our borders I hold up a shiny mirror. To anyone else, maybe your country is next.
AccountKiller
Is it just me or governement imposed bans were meant to be broken ? If im in Australia and i'm an addicted gambler will a ban actually prevent me from gambling ? A ban only makes it harder, but it won't stop the true addicts.
The same has happened before with alchol and OxyContin bans. In the later case, it is relatively easy to get on the street. Is this really helping anyone ? Even the prevention argument seems pretty bleak.
Freedom is strength, Ignorance is peace, War is slavery.
You don't have the freedom of speech to solicit someone to perform an illegal act, and it's not really reasonable to think you should. Keep in mind that soliciting someone to perform an illegal act is very different than simply talking about the act in any other context. You can certainly make a case that gambling should be legalized, but that's a separate issue. It's not in Australia, so you can't go around saying "Come here and gamble!" any more than you can say "Come here and buy heroin!"
To many Australians it's also absurd, but since it doesn't impact their daily lives they couldn't be bothered worrying about it.
As for an American finding Australian laws strange, have you seen some of your own laws lately?? ;-)
Most forms of gambling are legal in Australia. Most of the State Governments run some form of lottery, which raises much revenue (not to mention all the casinos and poker machines).
As far as I know, it is only illegal to run (and advertise) an online gambling site from within Australia. There is a press release at http://www.dcita.gov.au/Article/0,,0_4-2_4008-4_15 618,00.html from the man once described as the "world's greatest luddite", Richard Alston, the former Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&c2coff=1&q=w orld's+greatest+luddite&btnG=Search&meta=cr%3Dcoun tryAU
This sig is intentionally blank
So? To me as a European, the fact that you have the DMCA in the USA seems absurd. The PATRIOT act seems absurd. The fact that you have a president who got through with manipulating the elections, lied to his own people and *got through with it* and now advocates creationism seems absurd - as does the fact that he's being celebrated, while another president who actually improved your economy alot got shafted for having sex with an intern.
So what's your point?
For that matter, isn't it absurd that you can't yell fire in a crowded theatre? Oh, that's not freedom of speech, you say? Why not? It's simply wrong to claim that speech isn't regulated in the USA at all - it is, just like everywhere else. Your regulations happen to differ from Australia's, but they're still there.
And finally, what's with the "we should do X to them until they give up and do Y just like we want them to"? How would you feel if an Australian advocated doing the same thing to you? Oh, sure, you might say that you wouldn't care because there's not really any Australian company you're dependent on, but that's evading the issue - think about it. Don't you think that a sovereign democratic nation deserves a bit more respect than that?
quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur.
Try asking Yahoo how their case for advertising Nazi memorabilia on pages that could be seen in France went.
Well, you could look at what happened to this guy. man faces extradition to US
He broke no Australian laws, never set foot in the US and is facing extradition.
Waking Up - There must be a better way to start the day.
So you're saying the Australian media disallows criticizing the sitting government? That's news to me.
DAFT (Do A Fucking Traceroute). Google Australia is not hosted in Australia, it's hosted in the US. Unless Google has no physical presence in Australia, I don't think there is anything the Australian government can do about it except block Google and revoke Google's .au domain. And that wouldn't go over too well on the populace.
The Australian government can talk big and charge Google with hundreds of millions in dollars of fines, but how are they going to collect it? They have no jurisdiction to DO anything.