Australia Investigated 13 I-Gaming Complaints
The government of Australia is in the process of reviewing the Interactive Gambling Act of 2001, which makes it illegal for merchants to offer Internet gambling services to anyone located in Australia.
Since the act was legalized two years ago, the Australian Broadcasting has received 13 complaints about violations of the act. Of those complaints, seven of the instances were found to be actual violations of the law and three were found to not include prohibited behavior. The investigations of the final three complaints were ended because they were found not be substantive.
The ABA reports that it investigated the complaints between Jan. 1, 2002 and Feb. 20, 2003.
The seven gambling Web sites that were found to contain violations of the act were filtered, the ABA said.
Antigua and Barbuda Look to WTO for Online Gambling Ruling
Bloomberg reported March 25 that the government of Antigua and Barbuda is planning to challenge the U.S. stance toward online gambling at a World Trade Organization meeting on April 7 in Geneva.
In a case filed March 27, the island nation contests the United States' treatment of the online gambling industry, in particular the bill under consideration in Congress that would make all payments for online gambling illegal. Sir Ronald Sanders, the ambassador at Antigua's WTO mission, said U.S. policies toward the industry put Antiguan companies that operated in the industry at danger of losing business.
"What we want is survival, not blood," Sanders said. "We would like to see the law changed, but the Las Vegas lobby wants to keep gambling exclusively for itself."
A variety of American credit card companies have already blocked the use of their services to pay for online gambling activities. Those companies include Citigroup, Bank of America and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.
The online gambling industry employs 3,000 people in Antigua, Sanders said, and makes up a main source of income for the local economy. Antigua said that under the WTO's commercial services agreement, the United States should not block the industry.
IGN contacted the WTO for more information on the meeting scheduled for Monday and has not received a response.
Missouri Considers Anti-Porn Bill
The Missouri House of Representatives is considering a bill that would allow the state attorney general to prosecute all Internet pornography, not just child pornography.
The bill is facing an amendment, suggested by Rep. Wayne Henke, that would delete the word "child" from the wording of the bill, thereby outlawing all online pornography. The bill's original intent was to put a stop to Internet spam. Henke said Missouri's law enforcement needs stronger abilities to fight porn on the Internet.
"There is a lot of pornographic material coming across the Internet," Henke said. "I want to give the attorney general of this state enough legal tools to pursue any unlawful material such as this, especially when children come across it."
Taiwan Closer to Legalized Gambling
A spokesman for the president of Taiwan said recently that the administration is preparing to back a legislative decision to make casino gambling legal on the country's outlying islands.
Yu Shyi-kun, Taiwan's president, has met with leaders of development on the outlying islands, which include Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu. The president's political vice interior minister, Hsu Ying-shen, said the government has taken several opinion polls that indicate support for the plan to develop the islands with gambling areas.
One of the polls, conducted by National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, found that 51 percent of Taiwanese are in favor of legalized gambling on the outer islands and 23 percent are opposed to it. A similar poll conduced by the United Daily News during October of last year showed that 58 percent of the population was in favor with legalizing gambling on the islands and 34 percent were opposed.