ACMA website blocking: the legal basis, why mirror domains keep appearing, and what it means for money held at a blocked site

What is being blocked, and why

The Interactive Gambling Act 2001 makes it an offence to intentionally provide a prohibited interactive gambling service that has an Australian-customer link. Online casino games and online pokies fall into that category; licensed sports and race wagering does not. The offence carries 5,000 penalty units, and there is a parallel civil penalty of 7,500 penalty units. Each day the service continues is a separate contravention. The Act also prohibits advertising those services, which is why affiliate and promotion sites appear in the blocking lists alongside casinos themselves.

The law is aimed at the operator. The Act does not make it an offence for an individual in Australia to play at an offshore casino. That distinction matters for what blocking does and does not do: it is a disruption tool against the service, not a penalty for its customers. A fuller overview of the legal framework is on the Australian gambling law page.

The legal mechanism: section 313 requests

The ACMA does not switch websites off itself. Its blocked gambling websites page explains that it can ask internet service providers to help disrupt illegal online content by blocking websites, and that this authority comes from section 313 of the Telecommunications Act 1997. The ACMA uses that power where sites breach the Interactive Gambling Act.

The Australian-customer test and the operator's defence

Blocking only makes sense against sites that actually serve Australians, and the Act spells out how that is judged. Section 15 contains a defence for an operator that did not know, and could not with reasonable diligence have found out, that its service had an Australian-customer link. Subsection 15(4) lists what a court weighs in deciding whether reasonable diligence was used:

• whether prospective customers were told that Australian law prohibits the service for people physically present in Australia;
• whether customers had to agree, as a contract term, not to use the service while in Australia;
• whether the operator collected personal details and whether those details suggested the customer was outside Australia;
• whether the operator holds network data showing customers were outside Australia when the account was opened and throughout the time the service was provided;
• any other relevant matters.

This explains a pattern that is easy to spot in offshore casino terms and conditions: a clause listing Australia as a restricted country, sitting alongside an Australian dollar cashier and pokies marketed to Australian players. A restriction clause in the terms is only one of the listed factors; the others look at what the operator actually knew from the personal details and network data it collected. It also matters to the player, because an operator can point to that same clause when refusing a withdrawal, arguing that the account breached its terms from the start.

The ACMA describes blocking as one of several tools, used alongside engagement with industry, targeted enforcement and public education. It has also said that blocking provides an opportunity to alert the public to illegal gambling services through the message that appears when someone tries to reach a blocked site.

How the tally has grown

The ACMA announces new batches of blocked sites in short news releases, each with a running total since November 2019. The figures below come from those releases.

The jump of 412 between the August 2025 and May 2026 releases is the largest gap in the series. The releases checked for this article do not explain it, and releases between those two dates were not located, so the pace within that period is unclear. Sources: ACMA, May 2026; ACMA, February 2021; ACMA, November 2024.

Why mirror domains appear

Each ACMA release names the specific sites being blocked, and a block applies to what has been named. An operator whose domain is blocked can publish the same casino under a new address, and a copy at a new address is not covered until the ACMA identifies it and makes a further request. That is the basic reason mirror domains, alternative links and frequently changing addresses are common among offshore casino brands that serve Australians. The ACMA itself has not published a detailed account of how it handles mirrors in the material checked for this article, so the mechanics described here are an explanation of how name-based blocking works rather than a statement of ACMA procedure.

For a player, a new mirror address is a warning sign rather than a convenience. It means the operator knows it is targeting a market where its service is unlawful, and it often means account logins, payment pages and support contacts are moving between domains, which makes it harder to verify that a page is genuine. The blacklisted casinos page covers how operator reputation is assessed more generally.

What blocking means for money in a player account

A block does not freeze, seize or return funds. It only stops Australian internet connections reaching a website. Whatever balance is held with the operator stays with the operator, and whether it can be withdrawn depends entirely on that operator.

• No local protection. The ACMA has warned that even legitimate-looking offshore services are unlikely to have important consumer protections, so Australian law cannot help if something goes wrong, such as a provider withholding winnings.
• Risk of loss. In later releases the ACMA has said plainly that Australians who use illegal gambling services risk losing their money.
• Withdraw early. When announcing blocks in February 2021, the ACMA urged users of the targeted sites to withdraw their money.
• Little recourse. In a 2022 statement the ACMA chair said that if an illegal operator keeps a player's funds, there is little the player can do about it.

Any escalation runs through the operator's licensing jurisdiction, not through an Australian body. That route is covered in the guide to offshore casino complaints. How withdrawals are processed, and why they stall, is covered on the withdrawal methods page.

What changes on 1 January 2027

The Interactive Gambling Amendment (Gambling Reform) Act 2026, assented to on 26 August 2026, moves well beyond requests to internet providers. Its Schedule 2, titled Disruption of illegal gambling services, commences on 1 January 2027 and adds three new pressure points.

The DNS and search engine duties go straight at the mirror-domain problem, because they apply to any address used for the service, not just the ones listed in a request. The payment duty is designed to cut deposits off at the bank. A bank that blocks a payment in good faith is protected from civil claims, but must reverse the block within 28 days if it concludes the payment was not caught. In practice, from 2027 a player may find that a deposit to an offshore casino is refused by their own bank, and should expect the same friction on any attempt to move money to such an operator. Withdrawals out of an offshore account are not the target of section 15J, which is framed around payments from accounts held in Australia to the operator.

How to tell whether a betting site is licensed

The ACMA publishes a register of licensed interactive wagering providers, and suggests checking it before using a betting service. A site offering online casino games or online pokies to people in Australia will not appear on it, because those products cannot be licensed for Australian customers under the Act. A foreign licence shown in a casino footer, whatever the jurisdiction, does not change that position under Australian law; it only determines which overseas regulator, if any, will hear a complaint. The general criteria used on this site to describe operator risk are set out on the how we rate page. Anyone concerned about their own gambling can contact Gambling Help Online on 1800 858 858, and licensed wagering accounts can be closed in one step through BetStop.

Questions readers ask

Sources

Every figure and date in this article comes from the documents below; we re-check them when a source changes.

1. ACMA — Blocked gambling websites
2. ACMA — Latest illegal online gambling websites blocked (May 2026)
3. ACMA — ACMA moves to block more illegal gambling websites (February 2021)
4. ACMA — ACMA moves to block major illegal gambling website (June 2022)
5. ACMA — ACMA blocks more illegal online gambling websites (November 2024)
6. Interactive Gambling Act 2001, Compilation No. 24 (Federal Register of Legislation)
7. Interactive Gambling Amendment (Gambling Reform) Act 2026, Schedule 2

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