Israel Orders ISPs to Block Online Gambling

July 16, 2010 | News Category: Gaming Law

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The Ha’aretz newspaper in Israel has reported that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have been ordered to block online gambling websites. Apart from certain forms of gambling, such as the state run lottery, and some sports betting, both land based gambling, and online gambling are illegal in Israel.

In the past week, Israeli police have been going around to Internet Service Providers, and have been instructing the managements of the ISPs to block all access to any overseas online gambling sites. The ISPs have been told to do this because it is illegal to gamble in Israel. This is the first time that Internet Service Providers in Israel have ever been ordered to block specific sites.

The police instructions showed the ISP management personnel that certain sites must be blocked because they “provide a place for illegal gaming for lotteries or gambling, as defined in Section 224 of the Penal Code.” The lists that were handed over to the ISPs showed a list of gambling sites that are operated from overseas, and it included their IP (Internet protocol) addresses, in order to ensure that the correct sites will be blocked.

The list includes a number of well known online gambling sites, as well as some that have been geared towards Israeli gamblers, which is especially obvious when the site is in Hebrew.

The order, which was signed by Major General Bentzi Sau, the Central District police commander noted: “It is my intention to order your company not to provide users with access to these sites.”

ISPs were told that they needed to conform to respond to these orders within 48 hours from the time they received their police visit, and were ordered to block the sites. Some of the ISPs have asked for extra time to respond since they need time to deal with technological issues, and also because they wish to seek legal advice.

Another reason that the ISPs are seeking a delay is that they are not all sure that the police have the legal authority to order this. The Ha’aretz newspaper has reported that the police are set on seeing that the orders are complied with, and have no plans to rescind them.

The ISPs have pointed out that even if they block the list of sites, it is not really a solution because blocks on IP addresses can be gotten around fairly easily, and also the sties can simply create new sites with new URLs.