Australian operators face free bet crackdown
Minister Alan Tudge reveals plans to ban several types of promotions and changes to withdrawal rules on bonus bet winnings
The Australian government has announced a fresh round of regulatory reforms on the country’s online gambling sector, including a potential ban on several types of free bets and inducements.
Minister for human services, Alan Tudge, said commonwealth, state and territory gambling ministers agreed on Friday that inducements to open an account or refer a friend will be prohibited.
Bookmakers will also be required to ease the account closure process for customers and to ensure winnings from a bonus bet can be withdrawn and not subject to turnover requirements.
“Many Australians enjoy a punt, but we want to ensure there are reasonable protections in place and that individuals can have greater control over their gambling expenditure,” Tudge said in a statement.
He added: “Online gambling is growing faster than any other form of gambling and the incidences of problem gambling is higher. The gambling problems of the future will all come from the online space if we don’t put sensible protections in place now.
“Today, we agreed sensible limits on inducements so that people aren’t encouraged to spend more money when they may already be in trouble.”
Further online gambling reforms agreed at gambling minsters' meeting today, including limits on inducements. https://t.co/UTPbxfHE99
— Alan Tudge (@AlanTudge_) September 8, 2017
A timeline was announced for reforms agreed previously, such as the introduction of a self-exclusion register which will be fully operational by December 2018.
“A National Self Exclusion Register means punters can go on to one of their gambling apps and self-exclude from all gambling providers with one simple process,” Tudge said.
“Along with the limits on advertising and the crackdown on the illegal offshore providers, these new changes will make a substantial difference to limiting the harm from excessive gambling.”
On Thursday, the Western Australia government also unveiled plans to introduce a 15% point of consumption tax on operators, similar to that announced by South Australia last year.
The tax is scheduled to take effect from 1 January 2019.
In other Australian gambling news today, the Supreme Court of Victoria has made orders to convene a meeting of Tatts shareholders on 18 October to consider and vote on the proposed combination of Tabcorp and Tatts via a Scheme of Arrangement.
Tabcorp’s chairman, Paula Dwyer, said: “The release of the Scheme Booklet represents another important step towards creating a world-class, diversified gambling entertainment group that is expected to deliver substantial financial and other benefits for both Tabcorp and Tatts shareholders, customers, business partners and other stakeholders.
“Together we will be well placed to pursue more investment and innovation across all our businesses, including best-in-class digital products and experiences.
“With substantially all pre-implementation regulatory approvals now in place, we look forward to continuing to work with Tatts to successfully complete the Transaction and are expecting implementation to take place in November 2017.”