The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has revealed it engaged with 63 igaming suppliers in its 2024-25 financial year after those firms’ games were found on an unlicensed operator’s site.
As part of the regulator’s disruption efforts, the suppliers were contacted and advised that content and games were being made available to Australian players illegally.
ACMA told the suppliers that they could “potentially be ancillary to a contravention by their involvement with the service”.
Australia-based suppliers were informed first, with a series of follow-up tranches including suppliers that are licensed in other jurisdictions.
ACMA said 27 of the 63 suppliers responded to the correspondence and had taken immediate action to remove their content from the offending site, which ACMA did not disclose.
This included contacting third-party distributors and aggregators and directly contacting the offshore operator in question.
Geo-blocking restrictions were also implemented, while in some cases, legal action has been taken for breach of contract or fraudulent activity.
A further seven suppliers proceeded to take down their content or geo-block contact with the operator after being approached by ACMA.
ACMA added it was continuing to follow up with those suppliers that had yet to engage with the regulator.
The authority said the unlicensed operator had contravened the country’s Interactive Gambling Act 2001 on “numerous occasions” and that it ran several illegal sites.
The engagement with suppliers came as part of ACMA’s 2024-25 compliance priorities, which also included ensuring the credit card and crypto ban was upheld.
Earlier this year, the regulator issued a warning to social media influencers over the risks of promoting illegal operators.
Looking ahead to 2025-26 targets, ACMA said it would continue to take action to “disrupt illegal wagering providers that target Australians”.
Raising awareness of the national self-exclusion scheme BetStop was also noted as a key aim.
ACMA added: “Our engagement with software providers who have proactively withdrawn, geo-blocked or restricted access to their licensed content on services provided by the target provider has further disrupted the operations of one of the major players in the illegal offshore gambling market.
“We will continue to collaborate with these providers and maintain open lines of communication to report additional instances of their licensed games being used by contravening operators on illegal gambling websites.”
The post Suppliers pull content from illegal operator following intervention from Australian regulator first appeared on EGR Intel.
ACMA engagement to disrupt the supply chain saw more than 30 suppliers remove games from an unnamed operator last year
The post Suppliers pull content from illegal operator following intervention from Australian regulator first appeared on EGR Intel.