Users of online betting platforms such as Tab and Sportsbet will soon be stopped from using credit cards to place bets as the government prepares to introduce new legislation to bring regulation of online wagering in line with “land-based” gambling.
The announcement, made on Friday, sets in motion recommendations made by a 2021 parliamentary inquiry, which suggested the government prioritise data collection on the online gambling industry and roll out a ban on the use of credit cards for online betting, with exemptions for lottery services, including those offered by charitable organisations.
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said it’s “as simple as” preventing Australians from betting with money they don’t have.
“Protecting Australians from gambling harms is a key priority for the Albanese government. Legislating a ban on the use of credit cards for online gambling will help protect vulnerable Australians and their loved ones,” Rowland said.
As part of the change, online betting platforms will be made to use bank identification numbers, or “BINs”, to identify and block credit card payments.
Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth said harm minimisation isn’t a “set and forget exercise”, and that the changes bring online betting regulation in line “with land-based gambling”.
“Blocking BINs has been successfully deployed by Australian casinos and poker machine venues to stop credit card withdrawals from ATMs, and was used in the United Kingdom to implement its credit card ban for online gambling,” Rowland and Rishworth said.
The government will soon open up consultation before tabling draft legislation, which is expected to land later this year, and give the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) strengthened powers to enforce the ban.
The changes emerge as the latest in a series of government efforts aimed at reducing harm in the gambling industry, including dropping the “gamble responsibly” tagline in favour of up to seven evidence-based alternatives rolled out from March, as well as the introduction of a national self-exclusion register.
The new taglines include: “Chances are you’re about to lose”; “Think. Is this a bet you really want to place?”; “What’s gambling really costing you?”; “What are you prepared to lose today? Set a deposit limit”.
Australia is home to the highest annual gambling losses per adult in the world, at $25 billion overall each year. According to research released by the Australian Institute of Family Studies in March, 73% of Australian adults were reported to have gambled at least once in the past 12 months, while 38% said they gambled at least once a week.
Appearing before the government’s online gambling inquiry earlier this month, Australian Banking Association CEO Anna Bligh called the ongoing use of credit cards by online wagering platforms an “absolute absurdity”.
She revealed at the time that half a million Australians were relying on notifications from within their banking apps that allow them to block transactions linked to betting companies.
“When we did the audit about six months ago, I was surprised that it was as many as half a million Australians,” Bligh told the inquiry. “As you know, there hasn’t been some national advertising campaign about it.”
Labor said there is “widespread support” for a ban on the use of credit cards on online gambling platforms, including from the wagering industry itself, along with banks and responsible gambling advocates.
A survey commissioned by the Australian Banking Association from 2019 found that more than 80% of those asked agreed that gambling with credit cards should be restricted or banned.
Like cigarettes, Gambling Advertising should be banned as well.
This advertising is swamping our TVs, especially during Sporting Events – It is flat out wall to wall promotion.
The headline for this article reads:
“Labor to ban the use of credit cards for online gambling”.
Well, big deal!!
It is not so much the use of credit cards for this purpose that should be banned; or even advertising for this nefarious activity. What should be totally banned is online gambling itself. (And then we look at poker machines and casinos with the same outcome in mind!)
It’s a small step to restrain the gambling gluttony in Oz but at least it’s a start. But why has it taken 2 years since the parliamentary inquiry…
It’s called a lobby, Zut. And I’m waiting for the screams and tantrums from it after this announcement.
Governments will resist this all the way. The gambling lobby owns plenty of our legislators.
Unfortunately, Michael, what you say is absolutely true. It is a total disgrace!!
Look at how much of state revenue comes from pokie taxes. Hard to replace.
Now there you have the REAL problem gamblers……………….
The State Treasuries.
Like junkies, always needing more & more.
Not when the states are the regulators.
It couldn’t be simpler – tax them until the pips squeak and then some more until, hopefully, they quit the evil enterprise.
Then turn the buildings into something useful, like social housing for the ‘poor unemployed casino employees’ cited by His Minnissimo when opposing cashless pokies.
Think of all the money saved on social costs repairing the damage caused, as with tobacco and drink-drive regs which have fallen markedly and increasingly so as fewer adopt those habits.
Of course these problems would not arise were people to act responsibly in their own best interests (NOT their perceived best interests – pace PJK’s icon Jack ‘the Big Feller’ Lang) but, as the downvotes here demonstrate, the very suggestion is anathema to the bien pissants & victim mongers.
I’d kind of like to use rule .303 on the guys who run the online gambling rorts, followed by the bloody sporting code CEOs who have sold their souls and our children to the likes of Neds and Ladbrokes. If they are on shore tax them out of existence, if they are offshore, refuse them banking rights. I have no idea what is a sporting team’s home ground any more and, to take one example, the NRL forbids players betting, but has these insidious scum as naming rights sponsors.
Failing that, gun laws being what they are, a decent length of 2×4 would suffice.