{"id":777022924,"date":"2025-02-14T10:29:48","date_gmt":"2025-02-14T13:29:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777022924"},"modified":"2026-04-22T01:46:50","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T04:46:50","slug":"acma-blocks-8-more-offshore-websites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/acma-blocks-8-more-offshore-websites","title":{"rendered":"ACMA blocks 8 more offshore websites"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Australian regulator has blocked the sites for breaches of the Interactive Gambling Act 2001.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Australia.-<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>The&nbsp;<strong>Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA)&nbsp;<\/strong>has issued a request for Australian internet service providers (ISPs) to<strong>&nbsp;block eight more gambling websites<\/strong> for violations of the Interactive Gambling Act 2001.&nbsp;The sites are&nbsp;<strong>JokaRoom<\/strong>, <strong>AUDPokies888<\/strong>, <strong>Aura Play<\/strong>, <strong>Instant Casino<\/strong>, <strong>Leon<\/strong>, <strong>Rich Papa<\/strong>, <strong>UUSpin<\/strong> and <strong>Wild Pokies<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The ACMA blocks sites that offer&nbsp;<strong>unlicensed interactive gambling services<\/strong>&nbsp;or publish advertisements for prohibited services. Since its first request in November 2019, it has&nbsp;blocked 1,154 sites. The regulator says around 220 illegal services have also pulled out of the Australian market since the ACMA started enforcing new illegal online gambling rules in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the fourth quarter of 2024, the ACMA conducted 301 inquiries, upholding 243 (85 per cent). In the previous quarter, it had conducted 396 inquiries. It received\u00a0<strong>97 complaints and 24 enquiries<\/strong> in October, 68 complaints and 24 enquiries in November and 78 and 10 in December.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The regulator also completed&nbsp;eight investigations involving 16 gambling sites. It found one or more breaches of the Interactive Gambling Act (IGA) in five cases. There were 16 findings of breaches: 10 for providing a prohibited&nbsp;interactive gambling&nbsp;service to Australian customers, five for providing an unlicensed regulated&nbsp;interactive gambling&nbsp;service to Australian customers and one for advertising a prohibited and\/or unlicensed regulated&nbsp;interactive gambling&nbsp;service in Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It reported 75 URLs to accredited family-friendly filter providers and&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/acma-blocks-6-more-offshore-websites\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">blocked 75 websites<\/a>. The majority were casino-style services offering games like blackjack, roulette, poker, and slots.&nbsp;A number of the sites also provided wagering services without an Australian licence.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Probe announced after gambling ads broadcast during A-league match<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Earlier this week, the ACMA launched an inquiry after the streaming service&nbsp;<strong>Paramount+<\/strong>&nbsp;broadcast ads from&nbsp;<strong>8Xbet<\/strong>, an offshore gambling company, during a match between Wellington Phoenix and Brisbane Roar in&nbsp;New Zealand. The ads, digitally placed along the sidelines, were shown in both Australia and New Zealand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Australian Professional League said it identified a breach of advertising regulations in the first half of the match and that it was quickly rectified by technicians. However, ads reappeared in the second half due to another technical malfunction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A Paramount spokesperson told The Guardian: \u201cParamount+ inadvertently broadcast some inserted virtual advertisements during the Wellington Phoenix and Brisbane Roar match live from New Zealand on Thursday, February 6, due to the international feed being provided, rather than the Australian feed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis feed is provided by a third party and Paramount+ is working urgently with the supplier now to ensure this does not happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<div id=\"see-also-container\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"related-article\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"related-article__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2021\/03\/WA-gambling-regulator-under-scrutiny-after-Crown-Resorts-probe-300x200.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"related-article__text\"><span class=\"see-also-label-strong\">See also:<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/action-on-sports-betting-ads-in-australia-put-on-hold\">Action on sports betting ads in Australia put on hold<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Australian regulator has blocked the sites for breaches of the Interactive Gambling Act 2001.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":21504,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has directed ISPs to block eight additional unlicensed interactive gambling sites, bringing the total to 1,154 blocked since 2019, underscoring its stringent enforcement of the Interactive Gambling Act 2001. Concurrently, ACMA has initiated an inquiry into Paramount+ for broadcasting offshore gambling advertisements during an A-league match, highlighting ongoing challenges in regulatory compliance for media partners.","focusai_entities":"Australian Communications and Media Authority, JokaRoom, AUDPokies888, Aura Play, Instant Casino, Leon, Rich Papa, UUSpin, Wild Pokies, Paramount+, 8Xbet, Wellington Phoenix, Brisbane Roar, Australian Professional League, The Guardian","focusai_location":"Australia, New Zealand","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.95), operator_casino (0.9), affiliate_publisher (0.85), product_ux (0.7), tech_data (0.7), marketing_crm (0.9), payments_fraud_aml (0.7), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.85), journalist_researcher (0.95)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"ACMA Enforcement Efficacy?","query":"What specific metrics or qualitative indicators does the ACMA utilize to assess the long-term efficacy of its site-blocking initiatives beyond the sheer volume of blocked URLs and exiting services?"},{"label":"Advertising Compliance Gaps?","query":"What enhanced governance frameworks or technological solutions are being considered by sports leagues and streaming platforms to prevent inadvertent broadcasting of offshore gambling advertisements in regulated markets?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,156],"tags":[24459],"class_list":["post-777022924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-regulation-news","tag-australian-communications-and-media-authority"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777022924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777022924"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777022924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777022970,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777022924\/revisions\/777022970"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777022924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777022924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777022924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}