Senator Conroy has today admitted that there is a problem with ‘creeping’ when it comes to the latest discussions about ISP banning of sites on the dreaded ‘blacklist.’Online poker sites were included on this as well as other legal sites and content. It raised more than just a few questions to the Government about just how they think they are going to draw a line.

Techworld wrote an article earlier today where Conroy said “The concept of creep is a legitimate political debate.” He then went on to say “If people say it might go further, that is a legitimate point to raise. Am I going to agree with what [Senator] Steve Fielding might want banned? Absolutely not.” I particularly like this argument Mr Conroy. Why don’t you take heed of your own advice and admit you cannot control what is banned and do away with this ridiculous plan.

If we thought we had received an admission of guilt from this particular Senator, then weren’t we fooled. He later went on to say the technology “This is just not the case and the trial, in my view, will prove you can block 10,000 URLs without any over-blocking at all,” he said. “I believe the technology is there.”

Thank you for enlightening us Senator. There have been professionals all over the TV, internet, radio and every single form of media informing you that it will not work. Not only that the third largest ISP in Australia, iiNet, had their CEO announce that they were droppping out because it will not work. Then there is Telstra who is not happy at all with the track you are going down.

When will you stop pushing your own agenda to get into bed with Xenephon and Fielding, listen to the Australian public and industry professionals?

In an interview with Computerworld Betfair CEO Andrew Twaits said he is outraged over the ACMA’s blacklist that was revealed to the public last week. The multi-billion dollar company was blacklisted without even being notified by the ‘watchdog’ ACMA. The Australian Communications and Media Authority have caused quite a stir in the past few days since their blacklist was revealed to the public by Wikileaks.org.

Betfair, which is the main rival to the TAB, didn’t even know about any blacklist. He didn’t know about the fact that Betfair was one of many online poker sites on the blacklist. One of the more stifling questions remain, are they on it because they are an online gambling site operating in Australia or because they are a rival of the taxed TAB? I suggest that these are not two completely different concepts. I don’t think that Betfair has been targeted any differently because there were many other online poker sites on the list. But the real question is; Are online poker sites on the list in the first place because the Government can’t tax the industry? Many industry pundits such as myself believe the answer to this is an overwhelming yes.

Twaits had this to say about the matter; “We didn’t know. We’ve been licensed to operate in Australia for three years and have never received a complaint or any allegation that Betfair locally or globally is not permitted to be used by Australians. The global Betfair site is used by Australians every day.”

To make matters worse is the fact that betfair even block Australians from playing at their online casino and online poker site. They have made adjustments to their program so that they comply with the standards set by regulations within Australia. Twait said “Betfair is probably the only company in the world that blocks its customers from accessing the overseas gambling services.” He then went on to conclude “I need to find out what the implications are and how we got on the list, I’m amazed at that this has happened.”

I think I can safely say that most of the informed Australian public is amazed that something as undemocratic as this has occured over the past few days. Betfair are one of the most trustworthy, reliable online sports betting site available to Australian gamblers. The Betfair sportsbook is highly regard in the Australian gambling industry. They have been extremely hard done by here and have been treated harshly. This highlights the importance of why this movement musat be shut down immediately -the consequences are felt more than meets the eye.

The Sydney Morning Herald has today announced that iiNet will be withdrawing from the trials for banning users from accessing sites on the Australian Communications and Media (ACMA) blacklist. In an article titled iiNet pulls out of net censorship, iiNet was quoted as saying it could not “reconcile participation in the trial with our corporate social responsibility”.

This move by iiNet comes on the back of their increasing concern of the fact that the websites on the blacklist leaked by Wikileaks does not contain just child porn and other material of illegal material. On these list were YouTube links, WikiPedia entries and online poker sites.

Michael Malone who is the Managing Director of iiNet went on to say this “We are not able to reconcile participation in the trial with our corporate social responsibility, our customer service objectives and our public position on censorship.” He then went on to state “It became increasingly clear that the trial was not simply about restricting child pornography or other such illegal material, but a much wider range of issues including what the Government simply describes as ‘unwanted material’ without an explanation of what that includes.”

The last poin that Malone makes is at the cusp of why there has been a public outcry of the ISP banning. The Australian Government has been trying to use this ISP banning as a means of controlling matters that they normally wouldn’t be able to. The Australian gambling industry is one area that the Government has targeted. They have secretly added sites to this list that have absolutely nothing to do with the initial intentions of the list.

The blacklist that was initially denied as being valid by Senator Conroy now admits that they “share some common URLs.” In fact this what he says there is quite the understatement. The list that Wikileaks made available to the public contained more URLs than the ACMA list because some of them have since been removed. The Wikileaks list included all of the URLs that had previously been on there or still currently are. Wikileaks have even gone as far to say that they offer directions on their website that can prove this is true. This further weakens Senator Conroy’s argument.

The last part of the Sydney Morning Herald’s article is something that we all should note. They say “Experts warned that Australian businesses could be added to the list in error, with little recourse. They would then be associated with child porn peddlers and sexual violence sites.” They couldn’t be any more correct in this statement. Anyone associated with the online gambling industry in Australia has been categorised by the Australian Government along with these other sites. Australian gambling sites like Australian gambling are considered to be as harmful and illegal as these sites on the list. Simply because we link to other sites on the list. it just doesn’t add up.

The University of Sydney associate professor Bjorn Landfeldt was quoted as saying “Any person or corporation that would be identifiable on the list would potentially be deemed by the general public … either a child molester or at least in the same category as child molesters.” He then concluded “In effect, this could be interpreted by some as a government sanctioned hate list.”

Finally some common sense is starting to be seen by people in positions of power. Kudos to iiNet for taking a stance and not being a part of something that is taking away Australians rights. If you have a look through some of the videos we have here you will also find that many other people feel the same way along with Australia’s leading ISP Tesltra Bigpond.

If Australian online gambling was going in the wrong direction a few days ago, it has certainly turned around quickly. Senator Conroy and his department are finally starting to feel the pinch of the public and it has become highly unlikely that ISP banning will go ahead.

What does this mean for Australian gamblers? Well we can continue on our merry way bet whenever we feel like it. As it is our right to do so. The ANZAC’s fought for our freedom, we aren’t going to let a silly, small little politician take this away from us.

In our continued effort to keep the Australian public up to date with the current legislation involving gambling for Australians we are going to step back to 2008. In August of 2008 the South Australian Magistrates Court ruled that poker was indeed a game of skill. This was in the case of the Polics vs Jones. The matter was brough about after a poker tournament run by the Australian Poker Association resulted in charges being made by the South Australian Police.

It could not be proven that the APA made any profit from the event. This together with the fact that the law was in their favour allowed the ruling to go their way. The court listened to evidence that claimed skill was a large determinent in the outcome of the game. Because of this fact the court could not rule that they were involved in unlawful gaming because poker does not rely on chance to be able to win.

If you would like to know more about the specifics of the case we recommend that you read the article Is Poker a game of Chance? by the guys over at Addison Lawyers. These guys did a super job of summarising both the law and why the decisions were made as they were.

This decision made by the South Australian Magistrates court is in sync with what has also been going on in the United States. Courts in Colorado and Pennsylvania have both recently ruled that poker is a game of skill. Players have been arrested over there for playing in home games where undercover cops would raid their games. If is wasn’t for the Government’s recent attempts to ban Australian gambling then would could have said that poker in Australia was moving in the right direction. As it stands now, we can still gamble online, but how hard it becomes to do so is still unclear.

In this video Angry Aussie highlights the reasons why the ISP banning initiative that the Rudd Government are putting in place will not work. He goes through point by point and provides key evidence for the anti-ISP banning argument. Be warned that this video does contain swearing. AustralianGambling.com.au also stands behind lobbying group Electronic Frontiers Australia and recommend it as a great resource for catching up on the latest developments.

Of course when it comes to online gambling laws in Australia, we will keep you up to date with any changes.

Sunrise have done a report on the ISP baning in Australia. They interview Dale Clapperton from Electronic Frontiers Australia. Make sure you listen to everything he has to say, because this guy knows what he’s talking about. At the end of this video we should take special note. He believes that the reason why online gambling sites have been placed on this list is because of the Family First Party. Nick Xenophon is apparently the man behind it all and the Australian Labor Party is trying to get in bed with him. It is obvious to all that this is just another attempt by our Government to steal revenue from our industries to fund their extravagant spending and hand outs.

The 7.30 Report which was aired on the ABC interviews several key personnel from Internet Service Providers. They all agree on the fact that ISP banning is not the correct approach and will prove to be costly and ineffective. In one interview the question was raised as to how they draw a line on the content that is to be banned. Obviously online gambling should not be placed anywhere near the same category as online porn.

The Today show interviews an IT guy to have a look into the ISP banning system. Since the trials have gone about in Tasmania without them knowing about it, the Government has been taking a beating in the public. The ‘blacklist’ that is described in this video also contains online gambling websites.

This is the second part to Steve Johnson’s phone call to the Minister of Communications office. Although the conversation pretty much goes nowhere and nothing is answered for us, what we can get from this phone call is what they aren’t saying. They are evidently feeding the same generic information to everyone about these ridiculous censorship laws. Steve Johnson may not have gone about getting the answers the right way, but his motives are in the right place. We need to stand up and be counted.

This video takes a look into the similarities between communist countries like China and Australia after our Government starts to make a move to censor our internet. We are no longer able to safely use the internet without the threat that what we view will be banned.