Discover the nuances of Australian gambling laws with our guide aiming to transform complex regulations into understandable information for everyone.
This article is written by Kirsty Caldwell, a regulatory gambling compliance specialist. Her expertise and ability to simplify complex legal jargon make this guide an easy read.
Key takeaway
Australia is a wonderful country with an active online gambling industry, but you can only take part lawfully in certain types of gambling and gambling companies must be licensed.
Here’s what you will learn:
Read on for more information.
Online gambling is legal, but there are things that you need to know to make sure you keep safe and have fun.
As a country, Australia has both national and regional laws and regulations when it comes to gambling with the national law taking precedence over state laws in most cases.
The National Interactive Gambling Act 2001 permits online sports, horse race betting (but not most in-play betting), virtual events, and lotteries.
However, online casinos, online poker and most forms of in-play betting are prohibited online.
How old must I be to gamble in Australia?
You must be at least 18 years old to gamble anywhere in Australia.
Is Land-based gambling legal in Australia?
Yes, there is more choice of gambling products when going to licensed gambling premises, although different territories can have slightly different rules.
Also, the number of gambling companies given a licence is relatively small, with some effective monopolies in place in some cases.
Generally speaking, casinos, gaming machines, sports betting, race betting and lotteries are all available from land-based gambling companies.
Virtual events are not regulated in some territories. Thus, if they are offered, that gambling activity may not be protected by the rules and regulations for licensed activities.
As you would want to be the case, any form of cheating, match-fixing or collaboration with another player to defraud a gambling company or someone else who is gambling is illegal and subject to criminal sanction and fines or imprisonment, which in some states can be between 2 and 5 years.
How Do I know if a Gambling Company is Licensed?
It is a requirement of all licenses from both the national or territorial regulators that the consumer must be informed of the licenses held by the company.
- For websites, this is usually shown in the webpage's footer and will typically include a link to the regulator’s website.
- For land-based companies, they will display a copy of their license and information about who they are regulated by in their building somewhere, generally near the entrances.
You can also view the regulator’s website, where a list of licensed companies will be available.
You will need to register an account by providing your personal information, including ID information which will be checked.
There is currently a law working its way through the system which bans using credit cards to fund most gambling activities (and most gambling companies already refuse to accept credit cards, but debit cards can be used.
Be aware
Some payment card issuing companies may ban gambling transactions. Most gambling companies will have additional payment mechanisms such as PaySafe Card, ApplePay etc.
Cryptocurrency is not yet regulated in Australia, so it may be possible to use cryptocurrency to deposit funds into your gambling account.
Still, you should be aware that because it is unregulated, you will not receive any help from gambling regulators if something goes wrong.
Thankfully, Australian law permits the blocking of unlicensed gambling websites.
Thus, when the authorities become aware of their illegal operation, they can go through the process to prevent consumers from accessing unlicensed websites.
The main laws for gambling in Australia are:
As the gambling industry is subject to national and territorial laws and regulations, there can be regular updates and changes to what is and is not permitted.
Australia is very active in updating the legal framework, and a few of the current proposed changes are shown below.
- Interactive Gambling Amendment (Prohibition on Credit Card Use) Bill 2020 was introduced to the Australian parliament (August 2020)
- Bill to ban incentives for opening and keeping online gambling accounts introduced to Queensland parliament (August 2020)
- New gambling AML bill submitted to Australian parliament (October 2020)
- Interactive Gambling Amendment (Banning Social Casinos and Other Measures) Bill 2020 removed from Notice Paper in Australian Parliament (December 2020)
- Australian government changes online responsible gambling warnings for advertising (November 2022)
- Australian parliament considers loot box bill (November 2022)
A mixture of national and territorial state regulators is involved in Australia's gambling market.
If you ever need to make contact, the state regulator is the first place to go.
Recently, the regulators have been more active in checking gambling operators are adhering to the rules, particularly for anti-money laundering.
Therefore, you should expect to receive more requests for information on where the funds that you use for gambling have come from.
These may take the form of requests for salary slips, bank statements etc. and should only be used to verify the source of funds.
The regulators have been relatively active in recent times and have a number of reviews of licensed gambling companies ongoing at the current time, particularly for Anti money laundering matters.
This means that gambling companies may be more careful with such things as the amount of money you spend and the source of those funds.
Therefore, you may be asked more frequently for information about your finances.
As criminals can see gambling as a way of laundering their illegal proceeds, this is actually a good thing as it helps keep crime out of gambling,
This means you are less likely to encounter match-fixing and other false behaviour. Therefore, the gambling environment you play in will be more reliable.
The regulations include obligations for licensed operators to check that customers are gambling responsibly and are not either being or at risk of being harmed by their gambling activity.
All gambling companies are required to operate their own self-exclusion schemes.
This means a customer can register and then will not be allowed to gamble with that company until the self-exclusion period has expired.
A centralised national self-exclusion scheme “Betstop” is due to launch in 2023 and more information can be found on the ACMA website.
Customers must also be provided with tools that help them control their gambling.
These can be based on time spent gambling, amount of money deposited or lost or the ability to block a certain type of gambling.
Be aware
Gambling companies are only mandated to provide the option to set a deposit or wagering limit, but you do not have to use the tool if you don’t want to.
Providing Help and Support for Gambling Problems
Gambling companies must proactively review their customers’ gambling activity and try to identify where gambling harm may be happening.
This is to protect players from negative impacts of gambling more than is safe or affordable.
In addition, gambling companies must provide contact details of gambling harm support organisations which can provide telephone help, group therapy and other support practices for customers that are having problems managing their amount of gambling activity.
Problem gambling resources
The Department of Social Services of the Australian government provides gambling help and support for vulnerable people and information can be found on their website.
The national Australian charity Lifeline also provides information about problem gambling on their website.
Strictly speaking, no, as a gambler you are not protected directly by the regulators.
They licence and regulate the gambling industry and make sure the industry operates within the rules.
However, they do not normally get involved with individual customer cases and do not provide compensation to any customer who has suffered a loss, even if a subsequent investigation finds that the gambling company has acted unlawfully.
The regulations do require that every gambling company has a customer complaints procedure which must be followed and this must be made available to the public.
The regulators ensure that licensed companies are operating within the rules and that you are made fully aware of what systems are in place to protect you.
Recommendation
As with all things, please read the terms and conditions and policies of any gambling company you engage with to make sure you are happy with any benefits and restrictions provided.
When you register with a licensed gambling website you must enter your details and provide identity information. The gambling company will use their systems to complete checks including ID verification and some background “Know Your Customer” verification, which they must do under the regulations.
You can then deposit funds via a recognised payment service and transactions are verified with the payment service provider every time.
Some gambling companies offer their customers the chance to use Multi-Factor Authentication.
This provides a way for the customer to confirm that it is actually them logging in to their account, and this is a very good thing to do.
All licensed gambling companies have a duty of care towards you, meaning they must monitor how you play and assess whether you might be at risk of being harmed through gambling.
You should expect regular checks on your gambling activity and questions about whether you are comfortable with the amount of money and time that you spend gambling.
Some players see these checks as intrusive and overly personal, but they are necessary to ensure that players are provided with help and support when needed.
Playing on an Australian licensed gambling website, you do not pay tax on any winnings at all unless it is your main source of income.
That is, if you are a professional gambler, then you must pay tax.
Otherwise, 100% of any money you win, you keep. However, if you are registered to pay tax in another country, local laws may require you to declare your winnings so you should check with the local authorities.
The application process in Australia is to the territory that the company will operate in. Thus, you may see that a company has licenses from different territories.
In this case, the regulations that you are under will depend on which territory you are in when you register.
The application process includes requirements for the company to provide a lot of information about their company, how they will operate and how they are funded.
Each regulator reviews this information and only grants a licence if they believe that the information shows that the company is viable and will provide a safe and good service.
Both national and state laws make all unlicensed gambling illegal for the operator. Therefore, you should check that the operator you are registered with does have an Australian licence.
Licensed companies are subject to frequent audits, and the law and regulations are frequently updated to ensure that modern developments are considered and subject to guidance and requirements from the regulator.
Unlicensed companies are not managed by a regulator and therefore have no checks on how they operate.
Keep in mind
All the above means that you are protected and at far lower risk of having problems with a licensed company. When problems happen, you have support to rectify the situation easily and quickly.
With an unlicensed company, no one should help you should the company do something wrong.
Strictly speaking, “social casinos” do not meet the definition of “gambling” in Australia and are currently unregulated. With a social casino, you pay money to play a game but cannot win any money,
Therefore, it’s not technically “gambling”. You are, in effect, buying an entertainment product and cannot withdraw any winnings.
So what’s the appeal?
Well, it is entertainment, and you get the thrill of playing the game and the excitement of ‘winning’ or ‘losing’ but cannot get any financial return.
You could liken the experience to playing computer games except because social casinos are unlicensed, there is a danger that the games can be designed to be more addictive and therefore potentially more harmful for people that are vulnerable.
For example
There have been several accusations that the games are designed to allow the player to ‘win’ more often on purpose, as a hook to get people to play actual casino games.
There is a lot of debate about social casinos in Australia. A recently re-introduced bill seeks to ban or regulate social casinos or what it calls “simulated games”. A bill banning the products was originally tabled in 2020 but subsequently withdrawn.
Companies make a lot of money from social casinos and put a lot of effort into getting new customers.
If you like the idea of playing a game where you cannot win any money then they are currently legal and there is a lot of choice.
Be aware
These companies are currently unregulated and generally believed to be designed to make the process of playing more addictive.
Therefore, there is a lot of concern around the potential for harm to people who become addicted and spend money they can’t afford on playing the games.
Any advertising or marketing of gambling activities is regulated and subject to detailed guidance and restrictions on what can be included and offered.
Recently, the rules for including responsible gambling messages in advertisements were updated to require stronger messaging and to display those messages more prominently.
Therefore, you should expect to see many more “Please gamble responsibly” type messages in adverts.
Closing Thoughts
Choosing to gamble with an Australian licensed operator means picking a regulated, legal and well-managed environment that can be fun and entertaining.
As the regulators are quite active in checking licensed operators, any properly licensed company has already shown that they are capable of meeting high standards.
On the whole, licensed gambling companies operate fairly and support their customers well with both friendly customer services teams and easy to use websites.
Therefore, if you do like to thrill and excitement of online gambling, it is a good way to go.
Remember to check that the gambling company is licensed and follows the Australian gambling laws. And always gamble only the amount of money that you can afford to lose.
Above all else, have fun and good luck!
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