We are finding that people accessing our website from some workplaces are being denied access (this includes government offices in Australia).

We do not provide a gambling service. We are in the entertainment business. Our live pub-based games are ran within the NSW Office Of Liquor Gaming and Racing guidelines, and our corporate and private events are purely for entertainment, yet we are constantly denied advertising opportunities online because of an incorrect perception that all poker is gambling (rather than skill), or that poker can’t just be for fun and has to have money involved.

Can you imagine a trivia business having to go through the hoops we do?

I don’t think we are on the ACMA list, but clearly we are on a list somewhere, and part of our core business is running corporate events.

There needs to be a master white-list so that legitimate businesses (especially entertainment businesses that do not actually offer gambling but may have Casino or Poker key-words) do not lose income due to the incompetence of automated or human classifiers.

…or in the absence of that, a set of guidelines for what is or is not considered gambling by the filters/blacklists, rather than the law, because these filters/blacklists may have the ability to severely harm legitimate businesses where classification errors are made.

I’m not sure on the legalities surrounding this, but does anyone know if there has been, or is there likely to be, any lawsuit brought against the operators of blacklists or filters, by legitimate businesses that have been financially disadvantaged as a result of incorrect classifications?

I can understand why businesses would want to use filters to stop their employees accessing gambling websites, but who is setting the policy to determine what is considered gambling? I fear some filters and blacklists may be making up their own minds in some cases…

James Kruss
Managing Director
QueenSix

Contact QueenSix (www.queensix.com.au) for corporate events, private events, and poker bucks parties.

Most of the poker sites have play money sections where people can play for free..

You can recharge your account for free with play money once you run out, then go back and hit recharge
Endless supply of play money

Its not all about betting…

I enjoy playing APL (Australian Poker League) im not a gambler, I dont use money when i play poker..
APL is a Freeroll Poker Tournament that are set up at most pubs around australia for live poker tournaments, and they also have 2 tournaments every single day online using play money.. you gain points, and if you get soo many points in the month you go into a monthly tournament for prizes.. all at $0 cost.

So its not all about gambling….

If you want to say something that is not relevant to this, go and create your own blog or post somewhere else. Nobody is stopping you (yet).

That’s not the Australian way. You have to consider others’ private pursuits, yes, but their rights? What they?

I’m not interested in online gambling either, but it doesn’t mean I want it censored. I don’t agree with censoring out gay sites but I’m not gay. I don’t agree with blacklisting swinging and fetish sites but that doesn’t mean I’m into it.

You have to consider of the rights of others, not just your own.

I also believe that creating blacklists and censoring access to child porn is the wrong tactic. Monitor and track and prosecute and sentence – but don’t censor. Otherwise you risk the list being leaked, drive the whole thing underground so it’s harder to track and probably force the desperate bastards who enjoy child porn onto the streets to get their fix.