NSW, Australia - The New South Wales Betting and Racing Act has already deemed it an offense to issue “a gambling advertisement that offers any inducement to participate, or participate frequently, in any gambling activity (including an inducement to open a betting account).”
This development comes amidst increasing levels of gambling addiction in the region and in the country in general. Studies show that Australians lose more money gambling than any other country by a substantial margin.
The New South Wales regulator has also been increasing its penalties to dissuade gambling operators from disregarding their ad restrictions. They are also trying to place limits on the amount of money particular people are allowed to gamble.
Aside from that, a new online betting tax has also been put in place. This is a point-of-consumption tax that came into force on January 1. Its objective is to make sure that operators with licenses in other Australian provinces share the revenue they make from bettors in New South Wales with the respective provincial government. Most provinces already have this tax.
It is a 15% tax in South Australia, Western Australia, and Queensland. Victoria has an 8% rate while New South Wales went with 10%. Many global online operators have licenses in the Northern Territory due to its favorable tax laws and flat rate licensing. This new tax will help ensure that revenue is being fairly shared out among the respective provinces.
In the first full year of this tax, New South Wales is hoping to bring in added revenue of $74m.
While the province is doing its best to bear down on this problem gambling through this specific ad ban, the operators are still coming across ways sidestep it. Under provincial law, online gambling platforms are not legally able to attract new people to sign up. The only online platforms that can advertise free bets are those solely concentrated on racing.
Online gambling operators are now making use of various websites in order to solicit new business for their platforms. This has led to the authorities coming down with even more stringent regulations on the sector. On average, two cases a month are prosecuted.
Tabcorp, Sportsbet, Ladbrokes, and Bet365 have all been slapped with hefty fines recently. In all, operators have paid an estimated $92,000 in fines.
The scope of these fines is chump change to these firms, which see the trade-off of flouting the ad ban as being beneficial in their favor. The rise in revenues from running these forbidden ads and other crooked advertising exercises are pointedly more than the fines they receive.
