Curbing Lottery Land: Federal and State Legislators Agree on Online Gambling Consumer Protection

Wednesday 30 November 2016 @ 12.40 p.m. | Corporate & Regulatory | Trade & Commerce

In a recent Media Release (25 November 2016), the Federal Minister for Human Services, Hon Alan Tudge (the Minister), announced that the Federal Government had reached agreement with State and Territory Ministers to establish a ". . . strong National Consumer Protection Framework for online wagering."

At the COAG meeting of 25 November 2016 chaired by the Minister, including Commonwealth, state and territory gambling ministers and legislators in Melbourne, an "in-principle agreement" was given to "key aspects" of the Federal Government’s response to the O’Farrell Review of Illegal Offshore Wagering (2015) (the O'Farrell Review).

The Meeting Deliberations

The Communique released from  the Ministers' meeting noted that the O'Farrell Review found that online wagering was growing at 15 percent annually, and was the fastest growing segment of the gambling industry in Australia with over $1.4 billion being wagered online each year. Combined with this was the O'Farrell Review's estimates that ". . . between five percent and 26 percent of all gambling expenditure occurs via illegal offshore gambling sites". It is these illegal sites which cause the most concern as they present, according to the Communique, several problems which include:

  • a greater risk to consumers, 
  • sports integrity issues, and 
  •  a loss of jobs and revenue in Australia.

While acknowledging gambling as a legitimate industry which includes ". . . many Australians enjoy[ing] recreational online wagering" - the Communique indicates, that ". . . governments want to ensure that nationally consistent consumer protections are in place to better protect Australian consumers."

Outcomes From the Meeting

The key  outcome was the agreement of legislators with the O'Farrell  Review when it identified that the existing consumer protection regime for online wagering was inconsistent across the Australian jurisdictions and to address the issue, Ministers agreed to, continue working together towards the development of a National Consumer Protection Framework with in-principle agreement for the following elements to be included as part of such a framework:

  • a national self-exclusion register for online wagering;
  • a voluntary, opt-out pre-commitment scheme for online wagering;
  • prohibition of lines of credit being offered by online wagering providers;
  • a harmonised regulatory regime to ensure the offering of inducements are consistent with responsible gambling;
  • the provision of operators to provide activity statements for online wagering on demand and on a regular basis;
  • more consistent responsible gambling messaging and gambling counselling advice across the nation;
  • staff training in the responsible conduct of gambling through a government approved provider;
  • reducing the current 90 day verification period for customer verification to open a wagering account;
  • discouraging links between online wagering operators and pay day lenders; and
  • greater national consistency in advertising of online wagering services.

This meeting agreed to move forward with the Framework by forming a  working group to continue developing the National Consumer Protection Framework with details to be provided for the next meeting of COAG Ministers in early 2017 and with a public consultation process to follow.

Some Amending Legislation Already in Progress

It is reported that at the meeting of Ministers, in acknowledging the need to deal with illegal offshore gambling providers, it was noted that there were amendments to the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 (Cth) (the 2001 Act) introduced into the Commonwealth Parliament on 10 November 2016 in the form of the Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill 2016. This Bill makes the following key amendments to the 2001 Act:

  •  provides a clear statement that it is illegal for overseas gambling companies to offer interactive gambling products to Australians without a state or territory licence;
  • empowers the Australian Communications and Media Authority with new civil penalties;
  • introduces other disruption measures to curb illegal offshore gambling activity, such as placing company directors of illegal offshore companies on the Movement Alert List; and
  • clarifies the law by prohibiting ‘click-to-call’ in-play wagering services to respect the original intent of the Interactive Gambling Act.

Additionally the Federal Government is reported to be making progress on assessing the ". . . feasibility of Internet Service Provider and Financial Payment Blocking for illegal operators."

Conclusion and Going Forward

The nature of the problems are agreed and the State and territory ministers have agreed to implement the above strategies to minimise harm, as the ". . . real problems of the future" will, as the Minister stated in his Media Release ". . . come from online gambling". A point which is driven home even more when one considers the report by ABC News, on this meeting, quoting Financial Counselling Australia as saying that many clients are ". . . wracking up debt, [and] going bankrupt, from online gambling." Indeed it is hoped that the type of reforms discussed come to be implemented quickly for at the rate at which technology moves in lucrative areas like gambling, the problem will be even bigger than it is now by the time measures are in place.

TimeBase is an independent, privately owned Australian legal publisher specialising in the online delivery of accurate, comprehensive and innovative legislation research tools including LawOne and unique Point-in-Time Products.

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