Pokerstars could face Australia action

GP Information Services, based in the Erina Heights suburb of Gosford in New South Wales, is according to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission owned by Oldford Group, one of the business entities sought for forfeiture by defendants named by US authorities in the Black Friday indictments. It provides marketing services for PokerStars in the country.

The country’s Interactive Gambling Act 2001 (IGA) made it illegal for a company to advertise an interactive gambling service, and the Australian Crime Commission has urged the Federal Government and police to start charging poker websites circumventing this law by banning their services in the country, according to Australian newspaper The Courier-Mail.

The act makes the provision of an online gambling service (other than sports betting) to Australian citizens punishable with a fine of up to us$ 1.17 million per day, but no company has been charged for any such offence to date. Australian television stations Network Ten and the Nine Network last November escaped with a slap on the wrist from the country’s media watchdog, which argued they had breached the IGA for promoting PokerStars.net.

The report in The Courier-Mail however suggests authorities might have difficulties enforcing laws, whether or not a breach is provable. It quotes digital economy minister Stephen Conroy as saying "As the internet is a cross-jurisdictional medium, it is difficult for Australia to enforce our laws on companies not based in Australia."

Page thirty-eight of the criminal indictment seeks “all of the defendants’ right, title and interest” in Oldford Group, along with Rational Entertainment Enterprises, Pyr Software, Stelekram and Sphene International, listed as the entities through which “Pokerstars did business...at various times relevant to [the] indictment,” referring to the companies as “collectively, ‘Pokerstars.’”