Australian Online Casino License

Australian Gambling and Betting Laws

Since the Interactive Gambling Act became law in Australia back in the year 2001 it has been illegal for any online casino or in fact any type of online gambling site to offer their services by way of advertisements in Australia. Find out how to apply for a casino employee licence on the Australian Business Licence and Information Service (ABLIS). Casino key employee licence. Find out how to apply for a casino key employee licence on the Australian Business Licence and Information Service (ABLIS). Resources for casino licensees Compliance forms. Form 20: Gaming licensee.

As mentioned, online sports and horse race betting are legal in Australia, and for the operators it is handled at a state and territorial level. This section provides an overview of our ten states and territories that have gambling commissions.

Australian Capital Territory

The Gambling and Racing Commission is licensing body of the Australian Capital Territory. It first legalized online casinos effective 24 September 1998. This was overridden by the Commonwealths law (IGA) in 2001. Today there are no licensed online casinos in ACT, and only a single brick and mortar casino – Casino Canberra Ltd located at 21 Binara Street, Civic.

They do however license other forms of gambling. For brick and mortar this includes lotteries, housies (bingo), sports betting, horse racing and of course pokies. Detailed information about the various laws can be found on their website www.gamblingandracing.act.gov.au.

As far as licensing online sports and horse race betting is concerned, this commission does not have the best track record. Google searching the topic Sports Alive you can read about their failures as a gambling commission. They do however have a lot of favourable player rules, open disclosures and do mitigate player vs. bookmaker disputes. Again all these details can be found on their website.

New South Wales

The Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing is responsible for licensing all forms of gambling in New South Wales. For sports betting they license Tabcorp (NSW Division) and a small number of bookmakers. While they do have rules in place for online betting, excessive regulatory requirements makes this is a less appealing location for internet operators. For offline betting the gambling commission is however strong. They regulate Australia’s second largest casino ‘The Star’ as well as lotteries, pokies, pubs and clubs, housie and much more. Their website www.olgr.nsw.gov.au is comprehensive covering all gambling laws, licensing requirements, dispute resolution and more.

Norfolk Island

Many Australians might not even be aware Norfolk Island exists. This is a tiny island with a population around 2,300 that while part of the Australian Commonwealth enjoys the most freedom to remain self-governing. They act primarily as a tax haven and it is difficult to evaluate how safe their gambling commission actually is. We can note that this is where Austote was licensed before it was purchased by IASBet, and is now where bookmaker.com.au is licensed. Here the gambling is regulated by the Norfolk Island Gaming Authority whose website is www.gaming.gov.nf.

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Northern Territory

Northern Territory has the most significant Australian gambling history. In 1993, they issued Centrebet the first ever Australian bookmaker licence. While worldwide Intertops was the first online sportsbook, Centrebet came online the same year. In 1996 they became the first to operate legally from the Southern Hemisphere.

A limited number of brick and mortar casinos have been licensed here since the late 1970’s. The oldest is Skycity Darwin, formerly known as both MGM Grand Darwin and the Diamond Beach Casino, and the most noteworthy is Lasseters Hotel Casino. This property opened in 1981. In 1999, it launched the first legal Australian casino called Lasseters Online. This story was discussed earlier in this article.

In February 2000, the Liquor Commission, Private Security Licensing Authority, Escort Agency Licensing Board, Gaming Machine Commission and Gaming Control Commission all merged to create the Northern Territory Licensing Commission which now (among other tasks) regulates all forms of gambling in NT.

The NT Licensing Commission is strict about which companies they are willing to license. However, they also have the most favourable tax rates of all states and territories. While elsewhere operators can pay up to 58.33% on their upper earnings, here all taxes are capped. The scheme is 10% of gross profits paid monthly but to a maximum of $250,000 per year in taxes. This is quite attractive to major corporations. As a result, many of the top global bookmakers have launched Australian divisions from NT including www.bet365.com.au and www.sportingbet.com.au.

You can learn more about the NT licensing commission at their website: www.nt.gov.au/justice/commission/

Queensland

The Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation licenses all forms of gambling in Queensland Australia. Their website archives all are at, www.olgr.qld.gov.au. You can see from this page the first brick and mortar casino legislation came in 1982, pokies in 1991, Keno in 1996, lotteries in 1997, online gambling in 1998 and charitable games in 1999. This commission is dedicated to preventing minors from accessing gambling and has a strong focus on protecting problem gamblers.

Queensland is not an attractive location for online betting operators. Their tax rate is 20% of on net profit (of which 8.5% is allocated to the Community Investment Fund) and they also require a $192,900 quarterly licence fee. With the high tax rate, TAB Corp – who also operators keno here, appears to be the only operator interested in offering online betting from Queensland. This is because, remember, most Australians can gamble legally at sites licensed in other states or anywhere else in the world for that matter.

Worth noting is Queensland does have three well established land casinos in Jupiters Hotel and Casino, The Reef Hotel Casino and Treasury Casino.

South Australia

I mentioned earlier in this article, most Australian gambling laws relate to the operators as opposed to telling players what they can do with their own money. South Australia laws are an exception. Here the gambling laws are strict and were first laid out in the Lottery and Gaming Act of 1936.

This law straight out banned many games. For example it includes: “The games, tricks, or devices commonly known as “the purse trick”, “the three card trick”, “thimble rig”, “faro”, “banker”, “fan tan”, “two up”, “pitch-and-toss”, “hazard”, and all other games played in the same way, or of a kindred nature, are hereby declared to be unlawful games.. It also made it an up to $10,000 fine and up to 2-years imprisonment for any public gambling. Even a simple wager involving a coin was declared an offense and carried a $1,250 fine. This is only a few examples of the many restrictions included in Lottery and Gaming Act.

The forms of gambling long allowed in South Australia were lottery and a horse racing tote licensed by the Lotteries Commission. This same commission issued Adelaide Casino a license to operate a casino on its behalf in 1985. To this date, this remains the only land based casino in the state.

Originally, all gambling here was owned by the state government. It wasn’t until after the
Independent Gambling Authority Act, 1995 passed that private gambling became widespread in the state. This created the current gambling commission in place now that is known simply as the Independent Gambling Authority. Their website is www.iga.sa.gov.au.

In 2000, the Independent Gambling Authority, passed the TAB (Disposal) Act, sold its casino to SKYCITY Entertainment Group, and passed both the Racing (Proprietary Business Licensing) Act and the Authorised Betting Operations Act. While these actions privatised gambling in South Australia, the rules and laws are still excessive.

To make a long story short, it is only legal for those residing here to use official licensed betting sources. Luckily, IGA does offer interstate licensing to online betting companies licensed in other Australian states and territories. Their website includes a List of Authorized Betting Operators. Note that all of these companies agree to follow IGA rules which prohibit gamblers from being enticed. This means South Australians are generally prohibited from receiving bonuses and are not eligible for promotions offered by Australian betting sites.

Tasmania

Tasmania is Australia’s smallest state and has a history of being a gambling trend setter. On 14 December 1968 it held a one-question referendum on whether to issue Australia’s first land based casino license to the Federal Group. This passed with a 53% yes vote, and on 10 February 1973 the Wrest Point Hotel Casino opened becoming the first Aussie casino. It is still standing today and is located in the suburb of Sandy Bay in Hobart, Tasmania. In 1982 a second casino still standing opened here – Country Club Casino located in Launceston, Tasmania.

Online betting from Tasmania came about sometime after the Tasmanian Gaming Commission was established as the result of their Gaming Control Act 1993. Today this is a small three-person body whose members are Mr Peter Hoult (Chairman), Professor Kate Warner and Mr Stuart Barry. What makes them unique again from a trend setter standpoint is to date they are the only gambling commission in Australia that has licensed a peer to peer betting exchange. This is the state in which www.betfair.com.au is licensed which is available to residents of all Australian states and territories.

To learn more about the Tasmanian Gaming Commission refer to their website.

Victoria

The Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation– known when referencing gambling only as VCGR – regulates all forms of gambling in Victoria. This includes the states single casino (Crown Casino and Entertainment Complex) which is the largest in Australia. It also includes pokies, wagering, keno, interactive gaming, bookmakers, public lotteries, trade promotion lotteries, and community and charitable gaming (such as raffles and bingo).

This commissions website www.vcglr.vic.gov.au is extremely comprehensive. Most anything you want to know can be found here. You can also find the list of the over 500 different gambling venues they oversee. You can even find net monthly loss by venue. The information that can be found here truly seems endless. In short, this is a very well ran gambling commission. Even key employees must be licensed as part of their employment, which involves strict background checks and agreement to adhere to a code of ethics.

For this article’s purpose there isn’t too much to comment on regarding online betting except for one particular intricacy. The same as South Australia, Victoria has a rule that prevents bookmakers from inducing gamblers to open accounts and/or make deposits. Victoria residents are excluded from receiving free bets, sign up bonuses, and certain promotions at Australian online bookmakers.

As far as operators located here, this is not a popular state for running an online betting site. The tax on fixed odds sports betting is 19.11%, compared to 10% with a $250,000 annual cap in Northern Territory. Also, gambling regulation in the state now totals over 1,000 written pages. The compliance expenses and large taxes operators face are significant. There have however been recent proposals for gambling tax reform. This could change in the future, but at this time this is not a state that appeals to operators of online betting websites.

Western Australia

Western Australia was initially opposed to gambling. Only two years after becoming a self-governing British colony, the Western Australian Police Act 1892 made not only betting an illegal act but also playing any game of chance for entertainment. Despite this illegal gambling thrived and in 1936 the Lotteries Control Act was passed to allow charitable lotteries. Both the Betting Control Act 1954 and the Totalisator Agency Board Betting Act 1960 made horse race betting more accessible. In 1982 charitable bingo was allowed.

By the early 1980’s other Australian states had land based casinos but the government here was split and mostly opposed to the idea. Finally, what is now named the Crown Perth was built and opened on 30 December 1985. The link just provided is to its Wikipedia page which covers the history of the casino and the surrounding legislation.

Today, all forms of gambling in Western Australia are regulated by Department of Racing, Gaming and Liquor. Their website is extremely comprehensive and includes what games are allowed, who is licensed, the history of gambling in the state and much more. To learn more about Western Australia gambling laws and regulatory information visit www.rgl.wa.gov.au.

Gambling Income Tax in Australia

Australia taxes professional gamblers income tax at a rate of 30%. This is not a concern to anyone other than those gambling as a profession / primary source of income. For all recreational players gambling is generally not considered income for tax purposes.

The rules of whether a player is recreational or not have been well tested. Previously, the Australian Tax Office (ATO) was looking to collect 30% of Joe Hachem’s $7.5 million (USD) prize for winning the 2005 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event. Hachem argued at the time he won he was playing poker as a hobby and it wasn’t his main source of income. The ATO eventually agreed and he owed no taxes on his winning.

Understand if a player can spend $10,000 buying into a poker tournament and is not professional despite booking a $7.5 million (USD) win, chances are considerable most reading this article owe no Aussie taxes on their gambling winnings.

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Aussie Internet users are often unsure about the legality of gambling online, with the question regularly asked; is online gambling legal in Australia in 2017? It’s a complex question with a multifaceted list of answers, but to provide the most important answer, it is currently not legal for online casinos to offer services for Australian residents to place real money bets at online casinos, online poker and bingo rooms, and online sports betting sites.

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However, it’s not all black and white, and there are exceptions, which we will explore in this article to provide a clear explanation surrounding Australia’s online gambling laws.

Australian betting culture and regulations

Gambling is a widely enjoyed pastime that’s deeply imbedded in Australian culture; in fact Aussie’s account for the highest gambling participation rate in the world. Whether it’s chucking a couple of coins in the pokies at a pub, placing an annual bet on the Melbourne Cup or regular betting on your favourite table game at a brick and mortar casino, gambling for real money is part of the Australian way.

Rapid advances in technology has seen Australian online casino sites expand and virtual gambling rise in popularity as more punters turn to online, mobile and tablet betting alternatives. Most Australian gambling laws work to protect problem gamblers and ensure responsible betting practices, although it is arguable such laws in place are hypocritical and not in-line with other gambling laws.

Current government laws and legislations surrounding online casino gambling are focused on how Australian gambling operators run their business and which services they can and cannot provide, as opposed to what individuals are allowed to do with their own money. Such rules have minimal effect on the individual recreational gambler, and instead focus on restricting both local and offshore online casino operators from providing interactive gambling services to Australian residents.

In a nutshell, it is currently prohibited for any online casino based anywhere in the world to provide gambling services to anyone from Australia, as of September 2017.

The Interactive Gambling Act of 2001

While gambling via the Internet remains legal for Australians within some areas such as lotto betting and sports betting (as both industries are licensed and regulated within Australia) the Interactive Gambling Act (IGA) explicitly bans online gambling operators from servicing Australians.

The original IGA passed in June 2001 by the then Howard-government to protect the public from additional negative effects of betting. The Act decided to prohibit the following:

• It is illegal for any online casino (Australian or foreign owned) from offering real money online interactive gambling services to Australian citizens
• It is also against the law for such organisations to advertise real money interactive gambling services to Australian citizens.

The current fine for any operator in violation of offering interactive gambling services to Aussie residents is a maximum of $220,000 per day for individuals within the organisation, or $1.1 million per day for the company itself. These laws are directed at online casino and online poker room operators, but don’t specifically target Australian players themselves or prohibit Aussie individuals from placing real money bets online at such venues – “the average Australian citizen cannot be punished for signing up and gambling online,” (IGA, 2001).

The IGA does not apply to Australian-owned sports betting websites (like Sportsbet.com.au) or lotteries (like Lottoland or Tatts.com), provided they are associated with a land based business. As long as betting on an event is done before the event commences, placing a wager on a sports event or online lottery is not considered to be an interactive bet and is thus perfectly legal. This is different for interactive games played online in real time, like online pokies, roulette, blackjack, etcetera.

Live sports betting is considered interactive, and so this form of betting has been outlawed online within Australian sports wagering companies, and can only be conducted via phone.

Technically speaking, international online casinos offering their services to Australian citizens were in violation of the IGA, but the ambiguous wording of the original IGA allowed a gray market to flourish. The Australian government has since introduced new legislation in September 2017 that completely bans offshore providers from servicing the Australian market without question – the Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill 2016.

The Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill 2016

In November 2016, the Australian Government introduced the Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill 2016, also known as the IGA Amendment Bill, into the House of Representatives as the answer to the 2015 O’Farrell Review into Illegal Offshore Wagering. It proposes many of the changes discussed in the O’Farrell review to the Interactive Gambling Act 2001, namely to close the loopholes in the original IGA that allowed offshore online casinos to service Australians.

The IGA Amendment Bill went into full legal effect in September 2017, which means offshore online casinos and offshore online poker sites can no longer accept or service Australian players, or they risk large fines and penalties. Thus, online roulette and any other form of online casino play is technically banned in Australia.

The technicality is that there is nothing in the IGA Amendment Bill that suggest any penalty for Australian residents who continue to gamble at online casinos. While most of the big casino brands pulled out of the Australian market, there are still several reputable offshore operators who have chosen to continue to service Australian players, and the risk is on them. Offshore operators who offer online gambling services to Aussies risk hefty fines and punishment, but there appears to be no legal risk presented to players.

The contradictory nature of the IGA

The contradictory terms laid out within the IGA and the IGA Amendment Bill, which set the parameters for interactive betting within Australia, are glaringly obvious. There is an allowance to offer online sports and lottery betting and a disallowance to offer online casino and poker betting – when all branch off the same tree, and no research suggests one form is more detrimental than the other.

In addition, the IGA exists to “protect players”, yet the government is perfectly happy to have real life casinos and pokie lounges operating 24/7 around all Australian cities, with lottery tickets and keno games available at news agencies, shopping centres and petrol stations – gambling venues the government reaps the tax benefits from.

Online vs offline gambling laws

Land based casinos, pubs and betting outlets operate legally throughout the country, providing strictly regulated spaces in which Australians can place real money bets in real life. Casino gambling in Australia functions under the Casino Control Act of 2006, adhering to strict guidelines regarding operation, permitting the legal gambling of table games like blackjack, roulette, baccarat, craps and poker. Licensed gaming venues like pubs and betting outlets like TAB also follow firm regulations to ensure legal delivery of games like pokies, keno, lotto and scratchies. Along with the Casino Control Act, each venue operates within the individual guidelines set for each state, which you can find below. Brick and mortar casinos like the famous Crown Casino, Star City, Sky City and Jupiters Casino are prime examples of legally run land based gambling venues.

As detailed in the IGA overview, online casinos must adhere to an entirely different set of gambling rules. Namely, they are completely banned from operating within Australia and overseas casino sites cannot advertise their services to Australian residents or provide “interactive gambling services to Australians unless the person holds a licence under the law of an Australian state or territory.” Because there is currently no regulatory body in Australia that specifically licenses and regulates online casinos (and no announced plans to create one), there is no online casino license to speak of in the country for the foreseeable future.

The problem with the outright banning of online casinos is the land-based casinos retain their monopoly and lack the motivation to employ the many innovations many of these sites have accomplished, such as a much greater variety of casino games on offer than typical casino floors, and easy access to variations that include European, American and French Roulette, Roulette Royale, Live Dealer Roulette, Multiplayer and Multi Wheel Roulette and more. They have also historically offered more lenient betting options and better odds, with more affordable minimum betting limitations (and large maximums for high stakes gamblers).

Thankfully, land based casinos in Australia are starting to recognise the benefits of virtual casino titles, with many brick and mortar casinos now offering electronic roulette and baccarat from within the walls of their venues.

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.

Future of online casino betting

Gambling has always been a heavily debated subject in our country, with many politicians objecting the operation of gambling systems like pokies and calling for nationwide bans of slot machines altogether. The government stance on gambling laws is heavily based around the promotion of responsible gambling, supporting the notion of gaming venues to partner with counselling services to assist punters with detrimental gambling problems. The Coalition currently supports a voluntary pre-commitment system for gaming machines like the pokies (setting maximum betting limits).

As far as online gambling goes, the government has made it clear the Liberal Party is absolutely all about tightening the laws in Australia to block Aussies from placing real money bets with foreign-run casinos. Overseas operators, even though they remain largely outside of the Australian Government’s scope of authority, have already felt the effects of the new Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill and have exited the Australian market completely to comply with the new laws. Don’t expect things to change any time soon – you’re stuck with limited choices when playing online now, or sticking with offline roulette if you’re within reach of a land based casino.

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Gambling Bodies/Committees by Australian State

While keeping in line with national policies, gambling laws and regulations vary from state to state. For gambling rules specific to each state, please refer to the official gaming committee websites below:

Australian Capital Territory – Gambling and Racing Commission (www.gamblingandracing.act.gov.au)

New South Wales – Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing – (www.olgr.nsw.gov.au)

Northern Territory – Licensing Commission – (www.dob.nt.gov.au/gambling-licensing)

Queensland – Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation – (www.olgr.qld.gov.au)

South Australia – Independent Gambling Authority – (www.iga.sa.gov.au)

Australian Online Casino License Application

Tasmania – Tasmanian Liquor and Gaming Commission – (www.treasury.tas.gov.au)

Victoria – Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation – (www.vcglr.vic.gov.au)

Australian Online Casino License Online

Western Australia – Department of Racing, Gaming and Liquor – (www.rgl.wa.gov.au)

Other Important Links

Information regarding the 2001 Interactive Gambling Act and the Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill 2016 can be found at the Australian Government ComLaw website, with updated versions of the Act published upon review.