Commonwealth of Australia
Australia runs one of the sharpest splits in gambling regulation anywhere: a large, competitive, licensed online betting market sitting directly alongside a federal prohibition on online casino and online poker. The Interactive Gambling Act 2001 bans the supply of online casino and poker to Australians, and the Australian Communications and Media Authority enforces it, including by having illegal offshore sites blocked at the network level. Betting and racing are lawful, but they are licensed by states and territories rather than federally, and corporate bookmakers have historically concentrated their licensing in the Northern Territory while taking bets nationally. Tax follows the customer rather than the licence. States levy point-of-consumption taxes on wagering, commonly around 15% of net wagering revenue, which removed the advantage of licensing in one jurisdiction and serving the whole country. The live policy question is advertising. Restrictions on gambling advertising around live sport have moved from voluntary undertakings toward legislation, and the sector has spent the period arguing about what such a ban would leave untouched, particularly shirt sponsorship and in-broadcast odds discussion. The second question is durability. A prohibition on online casino that coexists with a persistent offshore grey market is the classic channelisation problem, and Australia has consistently chosen enforcement against supply rather than licensing the vertical. Nothing suggests that choice is close to reversing.
Interactive Gambling Act 2001 (Cth)
The policy debate centres on advertising restrictions and harm-minimisation for the permitted betting vertical, and on the durability of the online-casino prohibition against a persistent offshore grey market. Watch proposals on gambling advertising and any move on the point-of-consumption tax rates.
Four Northern Territory-licensed businesses sell Australians entries into US Powerball and EuroMillions draws. From 1 January 2027 they cannot, and online keno goes with them. The Lottery Corporation, which backs the change, has put the cost of losing its own online keno business at A$25 million of annual earnings.
A new paper by the former New South Wales regulator Paul Newson argues that Australia's bans on online casino and in-play betting are handing the market to offshore operators, and that the country's illicit tobacco trade shows how quickly practical control is lost. It was prepared for Entain Australia and New Zealand, and it lands as New Zealand prepares to award its first 15 online casino licences.
NICC chief commissioner Philip Crawford told a parliamentary committee he is satisfied with the Bally's-era management and wants the licence reinstated, conditionally, before he retires in November.
The headline number improved and the underlying business stopped bleeding, but Star's auditors still cannot say it will be able to pay its bills, and a leaked recording of its chief executive has handed the New South Wales regulator a fresh governance problem in the same week.
Parliament cleared the package on 19 August. Wagering ads disappear from live sport, from stadiums and from players' shirts, athletes and influencers can no longer promote betting, and a single national register will let Australians switch the advertising off everywhere at once. It commences on 1 January 2027.
Tabcorp has struck a AU$283 million deal to buy cloud-native platform BetMakers, with executives telling analysts it was the cheapest, fastest, and lowest-risk path to modernising a technology estate built on ageing on-premises infrastructure. Annual cost synergies of up to AU$30 million are projected within two years.
Tabcorp has signed a binding scheme of arrangement for the wagering technology group it walked away from in February, and it is paying a 41% premium to get it. The price of the delay is written into the terms.
The media regulator has asked internet providers to block a further 12 offshore gambling and affiliate sites, two of them impersonating licensed Australian brands. The action lifts the running total to 1,751 sites blocked since 2019.
Ryan Comstock has the top job at Ainsworth on a permanent basis. He inherits a business navigating a contested ownership structure, a mixed financial performance and intense pressure from competing major shareholders.
Australian Communications and Media Authority
ICLG (International Comparative Legal Guides)
Australian Communications and Media Authority