ACMA pursues legal action against online poker providers

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has commenced civil penalty proceedings against two individuals and one gambling provider over potential breaches of the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 (IGA).

Rhys Edward Jones, Diverse Link Pty Ltd and Brenton Lee Buttigieg have been accused of breaching section 15(2A) of the IGA from March 2020 up to the present day.

Jones provided prohibited services to Australian citizens between March 2020 and March 2021.

Diverse Link has provided the same services since March 2021 and Buttigieg promoted and referred people to these services.

The ACMA conducted a thorough investigation into the illicit gambling services, which were originally known as ‘PPPfish’ but rebranded twice, first to ‘Shuffle Gaming’ and subsequently to ‘Redraw Poker.’

According to the ACMA, these were online poker services, which are illegal under section 5 of the IGA.

The allegation is that Jones and Diverse Link offered the ability for Australian players to play poker for real-money by joining through a poker club mobile app.

Once a player joined, they would be able to purchase chips from separate websites either via bank transfer or bitcoin and then they would be credited in the poker club app.

The chips players earned through the app could then be redeemed for cash or bitcoin.

If found guilty, the maximum penalty for individuals is a fine of A$1.665m (£943,655) per offence, and five times that for companies.

In March, the ACMA urged ISPs to block access to six illegal sites taking the total to 426 banned sites in Australia since November 2019.