Ads for online gambling should be banned in Australia within three years, inquiry recommends XD LAW & ADVOCACY

Australian-operated casino Stake.com is one of hundreds of entities that will be caught up in the changes to Curaçao law. (Stake.com is not related to the Australian share trading platform, Stake.) The casino group could benefit from any regime change, which is designed to improve transparency and oversight of licensed operators. All expenditure/losses data reported on this page represents ‘real expenditure’, that is, adjusted for inflation to 2019–20 dollars to enable comparisons to previous years. The House of Representatives social policy and legal affairs committee chair, the Labor MP Peta Murphy, said this would “give major sports and broadcasters time to find alternative advertisers and sponsors, while preventing another generation from experiencing escalating gambling harm”.

Gambling in the Australian adult population

• This interactive data visualisation shows differences in at-risk gambling among Australian adults who gamble, by product and frequency (less than weekly, at least weekly).
• UBET QLD Limited is currently the exclusive licence holder for race and sports wagering in Queensland.
• Those most commonly affected were family members (including spouses/partners, other relatives, siblings, former spouse/partners), friends, and work colleagues.
• Since 2017, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) reports it has facilitated the blocking of 354 websites offering illegal gambling services and 21 affiliate marketing sites.
• At-risk gambling was significantly higher for those gambling more frequently on sports, racing, poker machines, and casino table games – but not lotteries/scratchies.
• Thus, online roulette and any other form of online casino play is technically banned in Australia.

The Australian Gambling Research Centre was established under the Gambling Measures Act 2012 (Cwth). The Centre’s gambling research program reflects the Act, embodies a national perspective and has a strong family focus. It is part of the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) and the authors wish to greatly acknowledge the AIFS for supporting this work. Special thanks go to the AIHW for guidance and assistance in producing this page, and to the Department of Social Services and Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation for providing expert review.

"When I found out about the money, my intuition said to me, he’s gambled the money up there, he’s completely hated himself – shame, guilt and a moment of madness." "Illegal overseas gambling companies are preying on Australians by targeting them with misleading incentives. Consumers have no recourse to retrieve their money," Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said. Harms to relationships (25%), health (21%), and emotional/psychological wellbeing (19%) accounted for the greatest share of gambling-related harm. Respondents scoring 1+ may be classified as being at some risk of, or already experiencing, gambling-related harm (Ferris and Wynne 2001). See Australian gambling statistics, 37th edition for background information and more detail on the definition of gambling products, sources of gambling data, relevant legislation and notes attached to specific tables and data items. Summerland Bank acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we live and work in Australia.

The Australian Gambling Research Centre is conducting the National Gambling Trends Study to better inform and support evidence-based policy and practical responses. Many online wagering providers are licensed and regulated by the Northern Territory Government—see a list of gambling operators licensed in the Northern Territory. This means our laws can’t help if something goes wrong, like if the service provider withholds winnings. Since 2017, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) reports it has facilitated the blocking of 354 websites offering illegal gambling services and 21 affiliate marketing sites. A quick internet search finds thousands of websites offering online poker and casino games to Australians.

Once a licence is granted, licensees must submit all proposed interactive games for assessment and approval by the Minister prior to being introduced in Queensland. Luckystar is among them and its licence holder has received a formal warning from ACMA for providing a prohibited gambling service to customers in Australia. "People go to Curacao to seek licences because there is no regulation, no law enforcement and no taxation at all," says Nardy Cramm, a journalist who runs a Curacao news site. "It’s not illegal for you to gamble online. It’s just illegal for the companies overseas to offer you to gamble online," he says. In total, he estimates he lost roughly $150,000 of his own money and another $150,000 that belonged to his mother, a pensioner with multiple sclerosis, through two gambling sites.

The Coalition currently supports a voluntary pre-commitment system for gaming machines like the pokies (setting maximum betting limits). Men who gambled on esports and fantasy sports tended to be younger (average age 32 and 33 years, respectively) than men who spent money gambling on horse racing (average age 41 years), sports betting and poker machines (average age 39 years, each) (Tajin et al. 2022). While many types of gambling are allowed in Australia, including internet-based wagering services, it has been illegal to provide internet-based poker machines and other casino-type gambling to Australians since the early 2000s. While Australia was one of the first countries to introduce legislation relating specifically to online gambling, all the way back in 2001, online casino games and other forms of internet gambling go back further than that. Some of the first online sportsbooks and poker sites emerged in the mid-late 1990s, Playfina Bonuses with the first online casino launching even earlier. The Australian Communications and Media Authority has ordered internet service providers to block 52 illegal online casino websites since it gained the power to do so in November, and warned that the websites frequently defraud users while offering few if any harm minimisation measures.

Beware Of Losing Money On Illegal Overseas Gambling Websites

We pay our respects to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ancestors of this land, their spirits and their legacy. The foundations laid by these ancestors—our First Nations peoples—give strength, inspiration and courage to current and future generations towards creating a better Queensland. To find out how to apply for an interactive gambling key person licence, as part of a licence application, contact OLGR.

What is the legal definition of gambling in Australia?

Interactive gambling (including internet-based gambling) is regulated under both Australian and Queensland law. Interactive gambling licensing is regulated in Queensland by the Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation (OLGR). Professor Livingstone also expected increased spending on online gambling during the www.insidermonkey.com COVID-19 lockdown, but said his own yet-to-be published research did not suggest that illegal casino sites were a major driver of that. Traffic from Australia to one of the most popular and widely promoted online casinos, JokaRoom, almost doubled from 606,407 visits in February to 1.2 million visits in April, SEMrush’s data shows. While Australians only have land-based casinos and roulette as an option for the time being, at least many of the online world’s strides forward are being used in licensed brick and mortar venues to some degree.

For example, the most recent New South Wales gambling survey found that just under one per cent (0.9%) of people who gamble had sought help for harms related to their gambling in the past 12 months. Research conducted by Goodwin and colleagues (2017) examined how many people (on average) could be negatively affected by someone else’s at-risk gambling. The research found that a person experiencing problem gambling can affect up to 6 other people around them, moderate-risk gambling up to 3 others, and low-risk gambling up to one other. Close family members, including spouses and children, were most often identified as the people impacted by others’ gambling problems (Goodwin et al. 2017). Differences were observed by gender and age group, with a greater proportion of men who gambled being classified as at-risk of harm (53% for men and 38% for women). At-risk gambling was highest in 18–34-year-olds among both men (71%) and women (56%) (AGRC 2023; Figure 7).