Broadband Advisor

Betfair banned by ACMA
CEO furious, tens of millions at risk.

Betfair CEO Andrew Twaits is outraged the multi-billion dollar company has been blacklisted under the government Internet content filters, a move set to annex tens of millions of dollars in local revenue.

Twaits was unaware the TAB rival had been blacklisted by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) when contacted by Computerworld, and said the watchdog had not contacted the company.

The global betfair.com site was one of many legitimate sites blocked by the watchdog, including dentists, bus companies and a tour operator. The blacklists were today revealed on wikileaks reportedly after a content filtering company leaked the list.

“We didn't know [about the ban]. 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.”

Under the Interactive Gambling Act, it is illegal for overseas companies to offer gambling services to Australians and Betfair blocks local customers from accessing its UK poker and casino products.

He said Betfair is probably the only company in the world that blocks its customers from accessing the overseas gambling services.

This law is not applicable to the Betfair.com site.

“I need to find out what the implications are and how we got on the list,” Twaits said.

“I'm amazed at that this has happened.”

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