An Australian Parliamentary committee has released its report in response to the Inquiry into online gambling and its impacts on those experiencing gambling harm. In the Committee’s own words, the message is “enough is enough”. The report contains 31 recommendations which, if adopted, have the potential to materially disrupt the Australian wagering and adjacent sectors.
The Committee’s inquiry was broad and was approached with a public health lens. This is reflected in the 31 recommendations. If implemented, not only are wagering service operators likely to face new regulations and closer oversight, but businesses operating in adjacent sectors will be required to do more to mitigate and address gambling harm. In particular, this could extend to businesses operating in financial services, media, online gaming, sport, and the public health sectors.
We have set out below a summary of the key recommendations that could apply to your business.
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Industry
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Relevant recommendations
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Summary of key recommendations
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Wagering Service Providers (WSPs)
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1, 3, 6, 10, 13 – 23, 25, 26, 29, 31
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- Advertising bans: phased ban over 3 years on all forms of advertising of online gambling (except for dedicated racing channels). See “media” section below for a summary of the phased ban.
- National regulation of online gambling: creation of new national regulation and a national regulator of online gambling. Australian Government to also levy online WSPs to fund harm reduction measures.
- Duty of care: impose a customer duty of care on WSPs assessed against standard risk indicators.
- Data collection: require WSPs to provide data (including de-identified customer data) to the national regulator and researchers relating to gambling participation.
- Identity verification: customers’ identities to be verified prior to commencing online gambling.
- Ban on inducements: prohibition on all online gambling inducement and inducement advertising.
- Payment prohibitions: prohibition on payment methods that do not minimise criminal activity risk and gambling harm.
- Proceeds of crime: prevent the use of proceeds of crime from funding online gambling.
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Media
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18, 26
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- Advertising ban: phased ban over 3 years on all forms of online gambling advertising (except for dedicated racing channels). The 4 phases are:
- Phase 1: banning online gambling advertising and inducement advertising on social media and online platforms, during news and current affairs broadcasts, and community radio during “school drop off and pick up” times.
- Phase 2: banning of all online gambling advertising and commentary on odds one hour before to one hour after sports broadcasts, and in-stadia advertising (including logos and players’ uniforms).
- Phase 3: banning of all broadcast online gambling advertising between 6am – 10pm.
- Phase 4: ban all online gambling advertising and sponsorship.
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Financial services
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10, 12, 13, 14, 22
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- Payment prohibitions: prohibition on payment methods that do not minimise criminal activity risk and gambling harm.
- Protocol for Blocking transactions: develop a protocol for banks and payment system providers to block transactions to known illegal gambling operators.
- Consumer protection standards: Government and Australian Banking Association to develop gambling consumer protection standards for banks, including blocks on gambling merchant categories for self-excluded individuals using “BetStop”.
- Investigation into responsible lending obligations: investigation into whether the small consumer credit contract sector is complying with responsible lending obligations to customers who gamble.
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Gaming & apps
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7, 8, 27, 29, 30, 31
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- Interactive games: working group to develop and implement minimum consumer protections for “interactive games” and suggest legislative mechanisms to implement tighter controls on “simulated gambling and advertising”.
- Games with “loots”: working group to consider whether games containing loot boxes that can be purchased for money should have tighter controls (eg spending controls, transparent odds and “drop rates”, and default settings disabling algorithmic loot box features).
- Offshore gaming: Australian Government to develop and implement solutions to better block offshore gambling websites (including skin gambling websites and mirror sites), and stronger sanctions for companies profiting from illegal gambling.
- App classification: National Classification Scheme to be applied to apps.
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Sport
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26
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- Advertising ban: phased ban on all forms of online gambling advertising. See “media” section above for a summary of the phased ban and in particular “phase 2”.
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Pubs and venues
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21
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- Ban on commissions: prohibition on commissions being paid to anyone involved in the referral or provision of online gambling.
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Health sector
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2, 9, 11
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- Gambling levy to fund health services: online gambling levy paid by WSPs to fund increased counselling and treatment services.
- Database of gambling harms: database on gambling harms and suicides data to be collected from health and support service practitioners.
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