Israel Tries to Ban Gambling

The State of Israel is in the process of trying to ban online gaming websites as well as porn sites and others that are considered "too violent" for public consumption.

The sites that come under this umbrella will be automatically blocked by Israeli Internet Service Providers. If the law is passed then the Providers will have 60 days to remove these sites from their services and search engines will have the same amount of time to remove them from their results altogether, at the risk of having to pay huge fines.

The bill which passed its first reading in the Israeli Government or Knesset last week means that unless a consumer directly asks to be allowed access to these sites they will be automatically banned.

The bill, which was raised by MK Amnon Cohen of the religious party Shas, received 46 votes in favor, and 20 against.

There is a fair amount of resentment against the proposal by freedom of speech proponent and anti-censorship protestors. The Knesset Economic Committee chairman Gilad Erdan said the action would "turn Israel into a kind of Iran." The people in Iran, however, are able to access gaming sites...