ACMA Blacklist and Gambling in Australia

So, what are your thoughts on the ACMA (Australian Communications and Media Authority) list of 2,395 URLs to ban (at IP level) to protect the Australian people?

As you probably know, in typically government style the list was leaked on to a website last week and it’s opened up a debate on many levels – firstly because although many of the sites are illegal and abhorrent (talking about those that relate to child pornography) and fully deserve to be banned others are seemingly harmless, innocuous sites that are perfectly legal.

On the list there’s some poker sites, legalised betting sites like betfair, a dentist, private companies, you tube links, my space pages… it’s quite bizarre.

What worries me about this, as an Australian, is the affront to civil liberties and the fact that big brother is able to tell us, the public what to do…. However more worrying than this is the fact that the government is trying to slip perfectly inoffensive sites into the mix with the truly disgusting sites that relate to child abuse. How can a gambling site ever be lumped in with a site like that?

It’s very much like the situation in the USA a few years ago when online gambling was banned under the UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) – the US did not ban gaming in a fair or voted for way though, it was banned by slipping UIGEA in under an anti terrorism law that simply could not be turned down. We don’t want a similar thing here, in which gaming sites are banned under the pretence of being something them are not.

The government was distanced itself from the list and said that it has had nothing to do with the leaked list, however, we will wait and see what happens when the list comes out for review and to be voted on…