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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."
Sounds like Australia wants to cash out
I just KNEW one of these days, that "I'm Feeling Lucky" button would get them in trouble.
Ha ha! They just don't want to lose any of their precious income from Pokie machines at the pubs. Those babies bring in $50,000 per annum - don't want that cash heading elsewhere now, do we!
... 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.
Maybe it's time to start looking into that again.
Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.
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
Do a search on www.google.com.au for "gambling" or "casino", no ads on the side. Do a search for "shrimp"...ad's ahoy. Pretty quick response!
Or does damn near everything in Australia having to do with computers, telephones, or ISPs seem to have problems? What's with the Australian government and high tech stuff?
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!"
Methinks they are beating their drum a bit to show they are not the civilservant slackers they appear to be.
This space is intentionally staring blankly at you
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.
Not all countries have freedom of speech. I don't know what Austrailia's stand on this is, but it's a tad parochial to assume that the US Bill of Rights holds everywhere.
Americans don't have freedom of speech because of the first ammendment, Americans have the first ammendment because of freedom of speech. The Bill of Rights enumerates a number of the basic freedoms that apply to all people everywhere; they cannot be legislated away just because a particular government or ruler doesn't like them.
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.
Australia has a VERY vibrant gambling scene. There are areas of the country where people pile most of their monthly salary into slot machines (which they call "pokies"). Australia has one of the highest concentration of poker machines in the world, and a high percentage of gambling addicts per capita.
Australia isn't interested in banning gambling as it brings in so much money. They just want to ban online gambling, as the money is likely to leave the country and not get taxed by the Australian government! This is protectionism, not some moral judgement on the part of the Australian government.
I wonder how long it'll be till Bush passes a law so that non-US companies can no longer advertise to US customers. It'll stop money leaving the US economy after all, and reduce the gaping trade deficit.
So you're saying the Australian media disallows criticizing the sitting government? That's news to me.
I live in Sydney, and every pub and club here has rows of poker machines. The influx of gambling services is quite a problem here, and is having a huge social cost. We probably have more gamling machines than anyone else in the world now. Not to mention two large casios in Sydney and Melbourne.
If the government really wanted to limit gambling it would target the gambling in clubs and casinos, however, I believe the real reason for the online gambling ban is more likely to be lobbying from the clubs and pubs (who make most of their money from pokie machines now).
Of course, all it means is that Australians put their credit card details into foreign internet gambling sites, and the government doesn's get any tax revenue from internet gambling at all.
Are you trolling or are you an actual retard?
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.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
From a WTO ruling last year: "The ruling followed a suit by Antigua and Barbuda, claiming U.S. restrictions amounted to unfair trade practices. The economy of the Caribbean nation relies heavily on Internet gambling. The nation points out that the United States allows gambling within its borders. And, in the case of state lotteries, the gambling is sometimes government-sponsored.
The Caribbean country views the WTO ruling as a victory. It sees two options for the United States. The first is that the United States must ban all gambling. The second option would be to grant offshore companies access to the market. The Justice Department did not return calls for comment."
So, it's interesting that the Australian government is taking a stance against Google and online gambling, considering that they are part of the WTO as well. I imagine that this will only leave them open to a suit by the small countries to force them to open their borders up to online gambling.
Then again, the WTO ruling hasn't had much effect on the States, where online gambling is still in pretty murky areas. On the other hand, one look at Google for searches such as poker or online poker and you'll find ad-sense placements filled to the brim. I think until someone actually slaps the search engines on the wrist and sets clear precedence, they will continue to see it as a (lucrative) revenue stream.
That can't be a case where "it is likely that the majority of that site's users are physically present in Australia". Unless they mean the Australian version of Google. Even so, it's a teeny segment of Google's search engine, so the majority of Google users aren't in Australia.
antipaucity