Australia-to crack down on illegal online gambling

[same_old]

HI All,

MODS- please remove this thread altogether if this has already been pasted.

Thought it be a good read as well as a heads up for the Aussie members here.

http://www.news.com.au/technology/au...-1226059970964

AUSTRALIANS who play poker online could be on borrowed time as federal agencies close the net on illegal gambling websites.

The Australian Crime Commission has urged the Federal Government and the Australian Federal Police to start charging poker websites blatantly getting around Australian legislation, by outlawing their services.

Sources close to the matter said the ACC had told the authorities to "pull their finger out".

The move comes after US authorities last month indicted the founders of the three largest poker websites PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker.

The FBI co-ordinated with the ACC and AFP as part of the crackdown which also involved fallen Brisbane IT tycoon Daniel Tzvetkoff, who was allegedly processing online poker transactions in the US.

As The Courier-Mail reported last month, several young Queenslanders are making a mint playing poker online sometimes earning up to $750,000 a year tax-free.

Providing online poker, bingo and casino games to Australians can draw fines as high as $1.1 million a day under the Interactive Gambling Act but no organisation has been charged in the decade since the laws were enacted.

This is despite the PokerStars website owning a subsidiary, GP Information Services, in Sydney. The company promotes PokerStars and Australian banks are used to transfer funds overseas.

Digital Economy Minister Stephen Conroy said the Government was investigating whether GP Information Services had breached the IGA but admitted authorities had problems enforcing the laws.

"As the internet is a cross-jurisdictional medium, it is difficult for Australia to enforce our laws on companies not based in Australia," a spokeswoman for Senator Conroy said.

"The Government continues to examine the regulatory approaches taken by other countries to online gambling to see what can be learnt about the best way to respond."

An Australian Productivity Commission report on online gambling last year said the IGA had limited success reducing online poker and that its effectiveness was likely to "decrease over time". The report said the industry could be better regulated if online poker was legalised. Several other Australian-based companies that deal with online poker transactions could also be charged under the IGA for "aiding and abetting" illegal websites.

Acting ACC chief executive Karen Harfield said she would not comment on specific cases. But she said: "Online gambling is a potential channel for money laundering and revenue and taxation fraud.

"The ACC works with a wide variety of Government and law enforcement agencies to combat serious and organised crime, including money laundering. This includes working with international law enforcement agencies."

An AFP spokeswoman said referrals from other agencies were prioritised according to the resources available and it had received a request for assistance from the US to take action against PokerStars.

She would not comment further on the ongoing investigation.

The Australian-based director of GP Information Services Craig Meagher did not return emails or phone calls.

For more on the crackdown on internet poker sites by US and Australian police go to the Courier-Mail.

[anniemac]

Well, looks like Australian players will join the US players in having been told what to do by their government.

Who or what is next?

[Nifty29]

The Australian law only provides for offences committed by companies and individuals who advertise online gambling to Australian citizens.

No penalty exists for citizens who actually gamble, and given the minority government here I doubt there will be any in the foreseeable future.

I'm not concerned in the least.

P.s Ty for the info same_old

[jetset]

It's an interesting development - especially the involvement of US federal officials in trying to get the Aussie feds to clamp down. How vindictive and hardball is that!?!

I'm pretty sure that Pokerstars thought the GP Information Services thing through very carefully before investing in Oz - I believe they employ over a hundred people in Sydney - and that its operations are entirely in compliance with Australian law.

Some of the most successful and well established operators on the internet are based in Australia, although they are careful not to accept action from Australian residents.

In addition, at least three major British companies are now involved in Australia through partnerships, mergers and acquisitions - Paddy Power, Sportingbet and Betfair. I doubt that they would have involved themselves without a thorough appraisal and legal advice...and they employ considerable numbers of Aussies as well.

I agree with Nifty here - short of controversial changes to the law, I don't think this 'clampdown' is going to come to much.

[Gremmyboy]

Just little brother Australia trying to emulate big brother America!

Not worried at all!

Cheers
Gremmy

[rockycatt]

these organized [gangsters ]/ politicians really want to know what we are doing with there retirement money they the pol's actually think its more thers than yours
after all you will pass away long time Pryor to the system sucking all of it$$ back through taxes ,fees etc

what ever happened to knee capping

[lots0]

I think the folks in OZ can thank their native son, Rupert Murdock for this.

News corp and the rest of Murdocks holdings and publications are all very very active in opposing online gambling.
Murdock is kind of like William Randolf Hearst who was opposed to Marijuana.
Hurst was not above lying and just plain making stuff up to get people opposed to Marijuana. Now Murdock is doing the same thing with Online Gambling... Funny how history repeats it's self.

[rockycatt]

ONLY IN THE usa

meet the[HEARST ] grand daughter got off free oh its a bank job for real

http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1430165504/nm0372553

Grand-daughter of William Randolph Hearst, media mogul who was the basis of Orson Wells' Citizen Kane.
She was kidnapped in 1974 by a group calling itself The Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), and held for 57 days. She seemingly threw in with her captors, and was caught on tape robbing a bank with them.
She escaped an ensuing shootout in which most of the gang perished (when their house burned down) and became a fugitive for nearly a year before she was captured.
In 1976 she was convicted of bank robbery and sent to prison.

[lots0]

ONLY IN THE usa

meet the[HEARST ] grand daughter got off free oh its a bank job for real

http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1430165504/nm0372553

Grand-daughter of William Randolph Hearst, media mogul who was the basis of Orson Wells' Citizen Kane.
She was kidnapped in 1974 by a group calling itself The Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), and held for 57 days. She seemingly threw in with her captors, and was caught on tape robbing a bank with them.
She escaped an ensuing shootout in which most of the gang perished (when their house burned down) and became a fugitive for nearly a year before she was captured.
In 1976 she was convicted of bank robbery and sent to prison.

Patty Hearst AKA Patricia Campbell Hearst Shaw
Is now a successful actress and author... and she donates HUGE amounts of money to the Republican Party...

Hearst(the old man) was also behind the religious group that financed the classic film "Reefer Madness". A crass example of Early American Movie Propaganda.
Hearst would also 'make up' News Stories about people going mad smoking pot and killing their families and other stuff like that...

Kinda like some of the stuff Murdock is doing today about online casinos...

[rockycatt]

Patty Hearst AKA Patricia Campbell Hearst Shaw
Is now a successful actress and author... and she donates HUGE amounts of money to the Republican Party...

remarkable success for a x home grown terrorist convicted bank robber and fugitive from the law i would say

dont thik anyone on here could pull that off
R C