AFP examines net-bet ad Simon Hayes JUNE 03, 2003
THE Department of Communications has handed the Federal Police a complaint that cricket's Baggy Green website has been linking to a site carrying gambling advertising.
Last week, departmental lawyers considered a complaint that a firm contracted to provide scoring and news to the site, UK-based CricInfo, was running advertisements for British betting agencies on its pages, which were linked from Baggy Green.
Baggy Green is licensed by the Australian Cricket Board to ninemsn, which in turn has contracted CricInfo to provide scoring and news content.
The content is separately hosted by CricInfo but linked from Baggy Green.
Some of the advertisements ran on pages directly linked from the Baggy Green site.
A Communications Department spokeswoman confirmed the department's lawyers had assessed the site and had referred it to the AFP.
A spokesman for CricInfo Australia said he had not been contacted about the complaint, and declined to comment.
In a written response to The Australian, a ninemsn spokeswoman said: "Ninemsn has had no complaint from the public regarding advertising appearing on Baggy Green, nor have we been contacted by the Department of Communications or the Australian Federal Police.
"Ninemsn has a vast network of websites and we act as a gateway to various websites where content is supplied by both local and international partners and suppliers. It is not unusual for consumers to be taken to an international website containing international ads - it is a situation that affects every online portal. Ninemsn does not host, serve or sell ads on online gambling," she said.
A spokeswoman for the ACB declined to comment.
When The Australian visited CricInfo, the site was running several gambling advertisements on its Australian home page.
One advertiser was running a site specifically customised for Australian clients, offering local support numbers and bets on events ranging from Australian Rules to Big Brother.
http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,6533625%5E15306%5E%5Enbv%5E,00.html
