Australia's ACMA Orders Blocks on 12 More Illegal Gambling Sites, Including PointsBet and ChromaBet Copycats

The media regulator has asked internet providers to block a further 12 offshore gambling and affiliate sites, two of them impersonating licensed Australian brands. The action lifts the running total to 1,751 sites blocked since 2019.

• The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has asked internet service providers to block 12 more illegal gambling and affiliate websites, in a request issued on 25 June
• Two of the flagged domains, Pointsbetz.com and Chromabet.org, imitate the licensed Australian operators PointsBet and ChromaBet
• The action brings to 1,751 the number of illegal gambling and affiliate sites blocked since the ACMA's first request in November 2019
• The regulator says more than 230 illegal services have withdrawn from the Australian market since it began enforcement in 2017
• ACMA warned that offshore sites which look legitimate lack local consumer protections, leaving users at risk of losing their funds

Australia's Site-Blocking Machine Keeps Grinding, Copycats and All

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has directed internet service providers to block a further 12 illegal online gambling and affiliate services, the regulator confirmed in a request issued on 25 June. The action is taken under the Interactive Gambling Act 2001, the law that prohibits the supply of most online gambling to Australian consumers without a local licence.

The 12 named services are 7Signs, Chromabet.org, Donbet, Duospin, Freshbet, Slots Gem, Jacks Club, Lucky Start, Pointsbetz.com, Spinrise, Vinyl Casino and Wildsino. Two of the domains are notable for whom they mimic: Chromabet.org imitates the licensed operator ChromaBet, and Pointsbetz.com imitates PointsBet. Passing off an unlicensed site as an established, regulated brand is a recurring tactic, and one the ACMA singles out because it is designed to borrow the trust that a licensed operator has earned.

The latest batch adds to a substantial running tally. According to the regulator, 1,751 illegal gambling and affiliate websites have now been blocked since it made its first such request in November 2019. It also reports that more than 230 illegal services have withdrawn from the Australian market since enforcement began in 2017, a figure the ACMA cites as evidence that the programme changes operator behaviour and not just the address bar.

Alongside the blocks, the ACMA repeated its standing consumer warning. Sites that look legitimate, it says, frequently lack the protections built into the licensed market, and Australians who deposit with them risk losing their money with little recourse.

Blocking Is Access Control, Not Demolition

The most important thing to understand about a figure like 1,751 is what it does and does not measure. Each block severs the path between an Australian internet user and an offshore site; none of them removes the site itself, which continues to operate from beyond the ACMA's reach and can reappear behind a fresh domain within hours. That is the borderless reality of online gambling, and it is why the same enforcement mechanism has to be run again and again. The more useful metric is the ACMA's claim that more than 230 services have exited the market outright, because withdrawal, unlike a single block, imposes a real cost on the operator. Access control raises friction for the casual user; it is the accumulation of that friction, not any individual block, that occasionally persuades an operator the Australian market is not worth the trouble.

The Copycat Domains Are the More Revealing Signal

The presence of Pointsbetz.com and Chromabet.org on the list matters out of proportion to their number. Domains built to impersonate licensed operators are an escalation from generic offshore casinos, because they target precisely the consumers who are trying to do the right thing by seeking out a name they recognise. That makes brand impersonation as much a problem for the licensed operators whose reputations are being strip-mined as it is for the regulator. Blocking the copycats is necessary, but it is reactive by design, arriving only after the fake has gone live and, in all likelihood, already taken deposits. Australia's enforcement apparatus is among the more persistent in the world, and it is doing steady work. It is also a reminder that severing access is the floor of what a regulator can achieve against offshore infrastructure, not the ceiling.