Australia’s two major parties have agreed a package of around 15 amendments to the federal government’s gambling advertising reforms, including a single opt-out register for wagering ads run by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). Wagering operators say the register cannot be built in the time available.
Labor and the Coalition reached the deal on Monday evening. It goes to Labor’s caucus and the Coalition’s party room for final approval before the amendments are moved in parliament, and the government wants the legislation passed by the end of this week.
Communications Minister Anika Wells set out what the amendments are meant to do.
It is expected that the government’s reforms will respond to these concerns by introducing new restrictions on inducement-based marketing and establishing the wagering advertising opt-out register, which will provide Australians with a one-stop shop to opt out of seeing wagering advertising on online platforms.
What the amendments add
The opt-out register works on the same principle as Australia’s do-not-call list. Consumers submit identifying details, such as the email addresses linked to their platform accounts, and online content providers are then required to stop serving them wagering ads. It replaces the current position, in which a user has to switch off gambling ads account by account on every platform.
ACMA will establish and administer the register. It will be paid for through a levy on licensed interactive wagering service providers, the same funding model used for the national self-exclusion register BetStop, where operators contribute in proportion to market share. The government has said the cost will not be passed to taxpayers.
The rest of the package targets inducements. It restricts high-risk inducements aimed at vulnerable and high-spending customers, applies a cooling period that blocks inducements to newly opened accounts and to people recently removed from BetStop, and removes spending-based commissions for VIP account managers.
The advertising rules already in the bill
The amendments sit on top of restrictions the government had already drafted. Television wagering ads are capped at three an hour during the day, with a cut-off at 8.30pm, and are banned during live sport except in scheduled breaks after 8.30pm. Radio ads are prohibited during school drop-off and pick-up times. Celebrities and athletes are barred from appearing in gambling advertising.
Online, platforms face a triple-lock requirement: gambling ads may only be served to users with a logged-in profile who have been age verified, and each account must carry a manual opt-out.
The broader advertising changes are due to take effect on 1 July 2027. Wells has confirmed the opt-out register will not be ready by that date, leaving a gap between the two commencement points that the legislation does not yet resolve.
Operators question the timeline
Responsible Wagering Australia (RWA), which represents the country’s largest licensed online operators, has focused its objection on delivery rather than principle. RWA chief executive Kai Cantwell compared the register to BetStop.
This new global opt-out system, akin to BetStop, is proposed to be designed, developed and implemented in less than four months.
BetStop, which is a simpler concept, took more than four years from inception to implementation.
Cantwell also said the advertising limits go beyond what a licensed sector can absorb.
These measures will significantly curtail our ability to advertise a legal product safely to adults.
That argument follows the line licensed operators have used in other tightening markets, where advertising limits are said to hand visibility to offshore sites. Global figures give the concern some weight: unlicensed operators took an estimated $5.9tn in wagers worldwide in 2025, according to the Gambling Compliance Index. Regulators have generally not accepted the trade-off. Denmark is moving on a gambling advertising ban of its own, and New Zealand has capped online casino licences at 15 as it opens its market.
Reform campaigners point at tax
Gambling reform groups have used the parliamentary debate to publish figures on what the sector returns. Analysis by the Australia Institute found that the five largest operators won A$5.4bn from Australian customers in 2023-24, reported A$0.4bn in taxable income, and paid A$0.1bn in company tax, equal to about 2% of the amount won. The same operators spent around A$600m on advertising and promotion, six times what they paid in company tax.
Martin Thomas, chief executive of the Alliance for Gambling Reform, said the tax position changed the terms of the debate.
We have long known the harm these companies cause in Australian communities. But now to hear that they give so little back through their tax minimisation schemes is appalling.
Rod Campbell, research director at the Australia Institute, said online betting companies are very good at winning money and very good at convincing the Australian Tax Office that they do not make any profit.
What happens next
The deal has not satisfied everyone in parliament. Independent ACT senator David Pocock called the Senate’s recommendation “not surprising, but tragic”, and Greens communications spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young has criticised the compromise. Liberal MP Simon Kennedy has pushed for a review once the rules are in place.
There should be an independent review of wherever we land after the next election, so we can do more.
If the amendments clear both chambers this week, the operational questions start immediately. ACMA has to specify how the register exchanges data with platforms, whether the register pushes identifiers out or platforms query it, and how compliance is checked across social media and search inventory sold from outside Australia. None of that is settled in the text, and the answers will decide whether the register is a working control or a registration page that ads route around.
Source: Australian Government
