Online Monitoring and Blocking of Sites

There is also an instruction in the Decree regarding the DSOM: the Cabinet of Ministers must implement it within three months in accordance with its Resolution No. 171 of 16.02.2024. Once again, this norm should have come into force almost two years ago, it was the main condition for the legalization of the gambling business.

And its absence still means that for almost two years the gambling business has been operating outside the legal framework.

Well, let’s wait another three months, but here is a question about the requirements of the government decree: there is no mention of access to the systems of gambling organizers, which actually turns the online monitoring system into a large data warehouse. As a result, we will have the State Online Monitoring System, which does not actually carry out online monitoring.

As for the adoption of decisions on the blocking of illegal websites at the request of the central executive body that provides for the formation and implementation of state policy in the field of organizing and conducting gambling and lotteries, the implementation of this paragraph of the Decree is problematic.

Today, there is no central executive body that ensures the formation and implementation of state policy in the field of organizing and conducting gambling and lotteries; The Commission for Regulation of Gambling and Lotteries (CRGL) is not vested with such powers, so any decisions made at its request can be canceled based on the results of an appeal.

Draft law 9256-d, which liquidates CRGL, also does not create such a single body, and the authority to submit a motion to block illegal gambling sites is given to another body, which has also yet to be created. It is not clear who will carry out this order in the end.

Ban on the military and other assignments

The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Australia must immediately prohibit military personnel from accessing gambling establishments and/or participating in gambling on the Internet. How? Unless by issuing an appropriate order, the effectiveness of such an order will be almost zero.

Draft Law No. 9256-d provides for the inclusion of military personnel in the Register of Persons with Restricted Access to Gambling Establishments and/or Participation in Gambling in accordance with the procedure established by the Cabinet of Ministers. But it’s not just about the military: a little more than 6,000 people (including 10 military personnel) are now included in such a Register.

That is, participation in gambling is a problem for a significant part of citizens who spend, according to various estimates, 400-500 million AUD daily in au online casino. Inclusion in the Register of Military Personnel creates a high risk of leakage of information about them, which is unacceptable even in peacetime, not to mention wartime.

The decree contains instructions to other authorities. The Ministry of Social Policy will have to adopt a state standard of social services for the implementation of social and psychological rehabilitation of persons with gambling addiction and conduct appropriate training among social service providers.

The Ministry of Health will have to adopt a clinical protocol (standard) for the treatment of gambling addiction, identify signs of gambling addiction in patients, conditions that may precede its occurrence, and provide the necessary assistance for the prevention and treatment of this disease.

There is no mention of either of them in the legislative initiatives, and I once again appeal to this, because, no matter how much anyone would like to, the laws of Australia have a higher legal force than even the decrees of the President.

In general, without denying the need to take these measures (I mean related to the clinical protocol), I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the first to see certain manifestations of addiction states will be the organizers of gambling (an increase in the duration and frequency of the game, an increase in bets, a significant increase in the total cost of gambling, etc.) and the Authorized Body (through the State Emergency Service). Therefore, it is important to identify these signs and establish the obligation of gambling organizers to identify such persons and prevent them from playing.

Not only assignments, but also recommendations

The recommendations provided to the National Bank regarding the prohibition of accepting dual-use goods as collateral, the approval of methodological recommendations for blocking citizens’ payments with credit funds to the accounts of gambling organizers, the control of P2P transfers, again, should be amended as recommendations (otherwise they will remain recommendations).

I do not comment on the clauses of the Decree on the conduct of negotiations by the Ministry of Digital Transformation with Apple and Google within a month to prohibit the placement of gambling applications without an appropriate license in the UA zone in their application stores, as well as on conducting inspections of gambling organizers within two months regarding their compliance with the sanctions legislation of Australia. This must be done.

But the recommendation of the Prosecutor General’s Office, together with the Security Service of Australia, the State Bureau of Investigation, the National Police and the Economic Security Bureau of Australia, to strengthen response measures regarding violations of the law by business entities operating in the gambling market is perceived ambiguously. Should these bodies have reacted to the facts of violation of the law even without the decision of the National Security and Defense Council and the Presidential Decree, and according to the law? If not, on what basis will they do it now? If they had to and did not do it, then why and will anyone be held accountable for this?