Responsible Wagering Australia warns that unlicensed operators now control more than a third of the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Australia.- The industry lobby group Responsible Wagering Australia (RWA) is pressing the federal government for a national blacklist<\/strong> of illegal offshore betting operators. It says current enforcement measures are failing to contain a rapidly expanding shadow market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n RWA, which represents licensed operators such as Sportsbet, bet365 and PointsBet, says unlicensed offshore providers are using sophisticated technologies, mirror sites and encrypted payments to evade existing blocks. According to industry estimates, unlicensed operators now account for roughly 36 per cent of Australia\u2019s wagering market. RWA chief executive Kai Cantwell warned that regulators are struggling to keep pace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Under current rules, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) can order internet service providers to block unlawful gambling websites, including crypto casinos, slot platforms and sports betting sites. But although more than 1,500 illegal websites have reportedly been targeted for blocking, many remain easily accessible, with new domains frequently appearing after takedowns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n RWA is therefore advocating for legal \u201ctake-down\u201d powers similar to those used by the eSafety Commissioner. The framework would extend beyond website blocking, requiring social media platforms to remove promotional content and accounts linked to banned operators. Search engines would have to de-rank and de-list illicit sites, and app stores would have to remove unlicensed apps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The proposal also seeks to disrupt payment channels by obliging banks to block transactions to offshore betting platforms and preventing cryptocurrency exchanges from processing payments connected to blacklisted wallet addresses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Industry stakeholders argue that targeting the broader digital and financial infrastructure is essential to curb illegal supply. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Responsible Wagering Australia warns that unlicensed operators now control more than a third of the market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":680,"featured_media":777028000,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Responsible Wagering Australia (RWA) warns that unlicensed offshore operators now command over a third of Australia's wagering market, advocating for a national blacklist and expanded \"take-down\" powers. RWA proposes a comprehensive framework requiring social media platforms, search engines, app stores, banks, and cryptocurrency exchanges to disrupt the digital and financial infrastructure supporting illicit gambling. This initiative aims to counter the sophisticated evasion tactics employed by unregulated entities and restore market integrity for licensed operators.","focusai_entities":"Responsible Wagering Australia (RWA), Sportsbet, bet365, PointsBet, Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), eSafety Commissioner","focusai_location":"Australia","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (1.0), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (1.0), affiliate_publisher (0.9), product_ux (0.7), tech_data (0.9), marketing_crm (0.9), payments_fraud_aml (1.0), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Regulatory Efficacy","query":"What specific legislative amendments or new enforcement powers would be required to implement RWA's proposed national blacklist and \"take-down\" framework effectively across all targeted digital and financial infrastructure?"},{"label":"Market Impact Analysis","query":"How would the successful implementation of RWA's proposed measures quantitatively impact the Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) and Net Gaming Revenue (NGR) of licensed operators, and what are the projected shifts in market share from the grey market?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,24628,153,158],"tags":[289,24634,24912],"class_list":["post-777038225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-highlight-of-the-week","category-igaming-news","category-slider-home","tag-australia","tag-illegal-online-gambling","tag-responsible-wagering-australia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777038225","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\/680"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777038225"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777038225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777038229,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777038225\/revisions\/777038229"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777028000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777038225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777038225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777038225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}