Introduction

This quick guide draws together the key findings and recommendations of the report, You win some, you lose more (the report), released in June 2023 by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs (the Committee) following its Inquiry into Online Gambling and Its Impacts on Those Experiencing Gambling Harm (the inquiry).

It does not cover all recommendations or evidence considered by the Committee. An abridged list of recommendations, sorted into key themes, can be found in Attachment A. Page numbers refer to the report unless otherwise indicated.

While the Government is yet to formally respond to the report, there are consultations underway, as well as commitments to reform, including changes to the National Classification Scheme (NCS) which will seek to reduce young people’s exposure to gambling-like content in computer games and a move to ban credit card use for online gambling.

This information is up to date as at time of publication.

Background to the inquiry

On 15 September 2022, the Committee adopted an inquiry into online gambling and its impacts on problem gamblers, following a referral from the Minister for Social Services, Amanda Rishworth. The inquiry’s name and terms of reference were amended on 12 October 2022, in response to stakeholder feedback calling for more supportive language to be used to ensure the inclusivity of those experiencing gambling harm (11).

This inquiry is the most recent in a string of reviews of gambling and related issues conducted by Commonwealth Parliamentary Committees during the past decade or so. Arguably, the most consequential of these has been the 2015 Review of illegal offshore wagering (the O’Farrell Review) which was announced following a Coalition election commitment. Recommendation 2 the O’Farrell Review proposed:

A national policy framework, comprising agreed minimum standards, be established to provide consistency in the regulation of online wagering and to improve the effectiveness of consumer protection and harm minimisation measures across the nation. (151)

The Government supported this measure and an agreement was subsequently reached with the states and territories to establish a National Consumer Protection Framework for Online Wagering (NCPF). Also secured was support for legislative reform which the Government pursued nationally through the Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill 2016. The Bill passed in August 2017, implementing elements of the Government’s response, including clarifying aspects of the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 (the IGA); strengthening the powers of the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to enforce gambling-related regulations; and enhancing the capacity of ACMA to share certain information with foreign regulators. The Albanese Government has overseen the implementation of the final measures of the NCPF, including the introduction of the national self-exclusion register BetStop in August 2023.

Gambling as a public health issue

The report is underpinned by the idea that gambling harm is a public health issue, with both submitters and the Committee calling for a radical shift in how the issue is approached (20–23). In adopting a public health approach, the Committee strongly rejected the dominant paradigm which characterises responsible gambling as the individual’s responsibility alone, noting that the language currently used stigmatises gambling harm which discourages people from seeking help (40–42). For example, the placement of harm reduction within the social services portfolio, with almost no involvement by the Department of Health and Aged Care (DoHAC), was questioned by some submitters, with Professor Samantha Thomas telling the Committee that this is ‘… kind of confusing. It creates gambling exceptionalism, because it creates this perception that gambling is somehow different from other health issues, and it’s not’ (49).

A public health approach would, instead, encourage universal intervention (rather than targeted intervention once harm has already occurred) through measures like public health campaigns, regulation and national strategies. The closest comparison here is, as the Committee stressed, the largely successful approach to tobacco reduction, which has seen strict regulation regarding the sale and advertising of tobacco products and the implementation of the National Tobacco Strategy 2023–2030 (40). National level strategies are also a feature of a large number of other public health areas, including the National Preventative Health Strategy 2021–2030, National Alcohol Strategy 2019–2028, National Ice Action Strategy 2015 and National Drug Strategy 2017–2026.

There is, however, currently no national strategy targeting gambling harm, and the Committee has called for one to be in place within 12 months (noting implementation would be progressive). Recommendation 2 states:

The Committee recommends that the Australian Government, with the states and territories, develop a comprehensive national strategy on online gambling harm reduction. The strategy should be based on public health principles … (41)

The Committee recommended that the national strategy and harm reduction measures for which the Australian Government has responsibility be funded through a levy on online wagering service providers (WSPs) (Recommendation 3). Such a levy should then support improvements to the best practice approach for programs serving people experiencing gambling harm, including by better equipping staff working in health, community and financial counselling services, and crisis and gambling helplines. These improvements in training were recommended alongside an increase in availability of integrated treatment services and enhanced referral pathways and screening tools (Recommendation 9).

The Committee also recommended that the national strategy be developed by a new Online Gambling Harm Reduction portfolio, removed from the departments which currently have primary responsibility for gambling and gambling harm:

The Committee considers it essential there be a new Online Gambling Harm Reduction portfolio in the Australian Government to develop and implement the national strategy. Neither DSS [Department of Social Services], nor DITRDCA [Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts], nor ACMA would appear well suited to leading a public health strategy. Both DSS and DITRDCA have very broad policy remits and DSS has limited resources and staff allocated to gambling harm reduction. The Department of Health has no current role in gambling harm reduction but has expertise in leading successful public health responses to harmful products such as tobacco. The new portfolio should draw on the expertise of the Department of Health, public health and gambling researchers and advocates, and Australians with lived experience of gambling harm in developing the national strategy. (41)

Australia’s regulatory framework

Evidence to the Inquiry suggested that Australia’s regulatory framework for online gambling is ‘complex, fragmented and inconsistent’ (15). The Committee also considered the framework to be inadequate:

Given the significant harms online gambling is causing, Australia needs to undertake meaningful structural reform of the regulatory framework for online gambling now to prevent further harm in the future. The current approach is not working. (39)

At the Commonwealth level (see this DSS website for state and territory regulators), there are 4 ministers chiefly responsible for the regulation of online gambling:

1. The Minister for Social Services is central to current frameworks for addressing gambling harm, including oversight of the NCPF.
2. The Minister for Communications is responsible for the operation of the NCS and oversight of ACMA, which regulates gambling advertising.
3. The Attorney-General, through the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre, reports on illegal gambling activities such as money laundering, areas covered by the IGA and the Anti‑Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006.
4. The Minister for Sport, through Sport Integrity Australia, is developing the Australian Sports Wagering Scheme. This Scheme arose from a review into Australia’s sports integrity (the Wood Review) announced in 2017 by then Minister for Sport, Greg Hunt. The finalised framework is yet to be released.

The Committee recommended that this fragmentated structure be changed, with a single Australian Government Minister given responsibility for online gambling harm reduction.

Evidence received by the Committee largely supported the need for structural reform, including the establishment of national regulation and a national regulator (17).

A national regulator

The report called for a substantial redistribution of responsibilities from the states and territories to the national level, supported by the creation of a new portfolio to oversee issues related to gambling harm. The proposed new portfolio would hold a wide range of responsibilities, including licensing WSPs and covering issues currently dealt with by DSS, ACMA and DITRDCA (41).

The creation of such a body would, however, likely encounter some level of state resistance, with the Committee noting (18) that the then New South Wales Government’s submission rejected the establishment of a national regulator, warning that the ‘flexibility that state and territory-based regulators have in being able to choose between a coordinated or unique approach’ needs to be retained (9).

Nevertheless, the Committee remained optimistic about the possibility of establishing a new regulator, pointing to the NCPF as proof that cross-jurisdictional cooperation is possible and that, under national regulation and a national regulator, states could continue to levy point of consumption taxes, which currently vary across jurisdictions (40–41).

In line with this, the Committee recommended that the establishment of national regulation and a national online gambling regulator ‘with the sole purpose of reducing harm and with responsibility for all licencing and regulation’ (42) should be the priority of the new national strategy. This would be achieved ‘with the cooperation of the states and territories’ (Recommendation 3) and reviewed within 2 years of its commencement (Recommendation 31).

The Committee also recommended that a national online gambling ombudsman be established within the national regulator (Recommendation 24) and that this body be equipped with monitoring, enforcement and compliance powers, with penalties ‘severe enough to be a genuine deterrent to multinational corporations breaching their legal obligations’ (Recommendation 23).

Regulation of WSPs and the financial sector

In addition to recommending that a levy be imposed on WSPs to fund a national regulator, the Committee proposed several additional measures to tighten regulation of both providers and the financial sector more broadly.

These included the imposition of a duty of care (Recommendation 18), requiring gambling operators to monitor customers for harmful or risky gambling behaviours (84–85). Such an approach has been adopted by some European countries. The Committee heard from bodies such as Financial Counselling Australia that, without the expectation of an overarching duty of care which requires WSPs to actively minimise and prevent gambling harm, the NCPF is flawed (85).

The Committee similarly considered that, despite some WSPs developing technology to track and manage gambling harm, a legal duty of care should be required, assessing compliance against a set of standard indicators of risk and harm. Under Recommendation 19, a standard behavioural algorithm would be employed by online WSPs to ‘ensure consistency of practice in the responsible service of gambling’, to make sure that risks are identified and managed (93–94).

The Committee also made a series of recommendations concerning broader financial sector reform, including an examination of small consumer credit contract sector compliance with responsible lending obligations to consumers who gamble (Recommendation 12), the need for (if necessary, statutory) minimum gambling protection standards for implementation by all banks (Recommendation 13), changes to customer identity verification (Recommendation 15), an assessment of voluntary or mandatory pre-commitments (Recommendation 17) and consultation with industry and affected individuals to determine minimum bet limits (Recommendation 25).

Sportsbet suggested that additional consumer protection measures would encourage illegal offshore gambling (43). However, when asked for evidence to support this, Sportsbet supplied only 3 sources: 2 documents funded by the United Kingdom’s industry association, the Betting and Gaming Council, and 1 survey commissioned by Sportsbet itself (37). The DITRDCA considered such claims to be ‘a pretty long bow to draw’, with the Department having no evidence that the introduction of other protection measures, such as restrictions on gambling advertising or 72-hour time periods for identity verifications, caused a spike in illegal gambling (38).

Currently, the most likely reform to the financial sector is a ban on credit card use for interactive gambling. This was a commitment announced in April 2023 by the Albanese Government, in line with recommendations from the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services’ report delivered in 2021. The ban will be achieved through amendments to the IGA made by the Interactive Gambling Amendment (Credit and Other Measures) Bill 2023 (currently before the Parliament), with the change to be enforced by ACMA.

Minimising illegal online gambling

There has been a significant push to minimise illegal online gambling, particularly addressing offshore gambling providers, with much of this space regulated through the IGA and the Anti‑Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (AML/CTF Act). Under the IGA, ACMA can request that ISPs block illegal offshore gambling websites, including online casinos, in‑play sports betting, non-licenced services and services offering betting on lotteries. The Attorney‑General’s Department opened consultation on proposed reforms to simplify and extend the AML/CTF regime in April 2023.

The Committee felt that additional effort was required to disrupt illegal online gambling and block offshore providers (Recommendations 7 and 22), including through international cooperation (Recommendation 8). In line with the Committee’s call for independent research, Recommendation 8 also acknowledged a need to ‘protect public policy and research from gambling industry interference’.

Advertisements, inducements and self-exclusion

The issue of pervasive and targeted gambling advertisements and inducements, particularly during sporting events, was a key focus of the inquiry. This was based on the premise that ‘many Australians are intensely frustrated and annoyed by current levels of gambling advertising and are concerned about the harm caused by exposure to gambling advertising, especially to young people’ (97). The report noted concern that advertising in sport had come to make gambling appear ‘intrinsic to enjoying sport’ (99).

With regard to the current regulatory framework governing gambling advertising (104–110), the Committee concluded that these rules are insufficient given the scale of harm caused by gambling advertising. While the Committee heard substantial evidence from sporting codes and broadcast media during the inquiry, it expressed regret at the ‘lack of transparency’ when it came to the industries’ reliance on gambling revenue (125).

The Committee heard from the AFL CEO of the:

… unintended consequences that may arise from the prohibition or overregulation on sports betting advertising and the potential to materially increase the integrity risks that may come from pushing gambling underground or offshore to unregulated markets. (26)

Nonetheless, the Committee recommended that:

… the Australian Government, with the cooperation of the states and territories, implement a comprehensive ban on all forms of advertising for online gambling, to be introduced in four phases, over three years, commencing immediately … (Recommendation 26)

Relevantly, the following Private Member’s Bills seeking to ban gambling advertisements have been introduced during the 47th Parliament, as at September 2023:

• Broadcasting Services Amendment (Ban on Gambling Advertisements During Live Sport) Bill 2023 introduced by Senator Sarah Henderson
• Broadcasting Services Amendment (Prohibition of Gambling Advertisements) Bill 2023 introduced by Zoe Daniel and
• Interactive Gambling Amendment (Ban on Gambling Advertisements) Bill 2023 introduced by Rebekha Sharkie.

The inquiry also heard concerns about online gambling inducements and VIP programs and the limitations of self-exclusion registers run by states and territories and wagering providers (72–76 and Recommendation 16). BetStop, which was introduced in August 2023 as a measure under the NCPF, is an overarching register that allows an individual to self-exclude from all licensed online WSPs through a single process (76–77). However, while the Committee felt BetStop had the potential to be a ‘powerful consumer protection tool’, it was of the view that BetStop’s implementation needed to be supported by additional measures, including identity verification before an account is opened, rather than the current 72-hour period which some felt is still long enough to facilitate considerable harm (70–72 and Recommendation 15).

Further, although the Committee heard of action taken by ACMA against companies breaching requirements of self-exclusion registers, it concluded that ‘current penalties for breaches of online WSPs’ responsibilities to their customers neither match the seriousness of the breaches nor provide an adequate deterrent to change behaviour’ (85).

Simulated gambling and loot boxes

Computer games containing simulated gambling or chance-based items (loot boxes) were a focus of the inquiry, with the Committee noting emerging evidence suggesting either a strong correlation or even causal link between young people exposed to simulated gambling through games and later gambling harm (131).

Loot boxes were examined by the Senate Environment and Communications References Committee in 2018 for the report Gaming micro-transactions for chance-based items, which found that there was limited research-based evidence upon which to base policy responses (73). The current inquiry instead argued that ‘… Australia cannot wait another generation before acting on this important issue’ (146).

Recommendation 30 consequently called for further work to be done in this area and for further research to determine the level of regulation required to avoid gambling harm being facilitated by computer games containing either simulated gambling or loot boxes. This included recommending future discussions to consider measures such as spending controls, transparent odds and opt‑in controls for loot boxes and simulated gambling content (148–149).

The Government has announced its intention to reform the regulatory framework around loot boxes and simulated gambling in computer games. To date, it has focused on consultation concerning changes to the classification of computer games through revision of the National Classification Scheme. Consultation closed in June 2023, and submissions are available on the DITRDCA’s website.

Current Government proposals would impose an M rating on games offering loot boxes and an R18+ rating on those containing simulated gambling. The Committee indicated its support for these proposals as a first step, but urged the Government to ‘consider applying a more granular approach’ as an acknowledgement that some games which use loot boxes more closely resemble gambling than others (147). It also called for the National Classification Scheme to be applied consistently to online app stores (including the Google Play Store, the Apple App Store and the Steam Store) which offer games (147 and Recommendation 27). The Coalition has also previously expressed support for consultation with industry and stakeholders over changes to the National Classification Scheme. Additionally, there have been some other non-Government calls for stricter reform, such as the Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Amendment (Loot Boxes) Bill 2022, introduced by Andrew Wilkie, who raised concerns that the use of only the M rating for games with loot boxes, as opposed to the R18+ rating, would provide insufficient protection for young people.

To support changes to rules governing simulated gambling, the Committee called for an education campaign targeted at parents, caregivers, teachers and young people (Recommendation 28).

Education and research

In adopting a public health approach to gambling harm, the Committee stressed the need for education, including a national public education campaign that both counters gambling messages and provides information on resources available to consumers seeking protection (40).

Accordingly, the Committee recommended ‘that the Australian Government develop and fund an ongoing, online gambling public education campaign with national advertising and marketing, particularly online …’ (43).

Further, the Committee recommended the campaign should:

• seek to counter the harmful messages of gambling advertising
• be informed by rigorous, independent research
• be developed with input from target individuals and communities to ensure they are relevant, culturally safe and linguistically appropriate
• accurately present the risks and harms of gambling with licenced operators and illegal offshore websites
• aim to reduce stigma and encourage help-seeking, and protect the most vulnerable from gambling harm
• educate Australians about available consumer protection tools for online gambling and encourage healthy behaviours
• provide resources that can be used by schools, universities and community organisations, such as sporting clubs
• be thoroughly evaluated, with the evaluations to be publicly available. (Recommendation 4)

The need for evaluation of policies and continued research in more poorly understood areas, such as the impact of simulated gambling and loot boxes, was highlighted throughout the report. This included a call for better data collection on the issue of gambling-related suicides. While the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) includes both ‘Hazardous gambling or betting’ and ‘Gambling disorder’ as recognised health problems the Committee argued that, at the national level, protocols are needed to ensure appropriate care is provided to those approaching medical professionals (59).

The Committee also made recommendations regarding the facilitation of independent (as opposed to industry-funded) research (32–34). For instance, Recommendation 5 encouraged the Government to equip the Australian Institute of Family Studies’ Australian Gambling Research Centre to act as a national clearinghouse for gambling research (44). Additionally, the Committee maintained that research into online gambling harm should be informed by deidentified data collected by online WSPs, with the aim of moving towards regulators having real-time access (44).

Next steps

With the Government yet to respond to the report, it remains unclear which recommendations will be actioned. Gambling reforms being discussed currently centre on the banning of credit cards and credit-related products for interactive wagering services and amending the National Classification Scheme to address concerns around loot boxes and simulated gambling. These measures would add to other recent initiatives such as the launch of BetStop and changes to the ‘gamble responsibly’ taglines.

The Committee, however, called for further and more holistic action. Perhaps most notably, the call for a ban on advertising for online gambling tapped into an issue of significant Parliamentary concern. With televised gambling advertising already under scrutiny – described by Prime Minister Albanese as ‘annoying’ and criticised in Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s 2023 Budget Reply Speech – online advertising is likely to add a further dimension to the discussion already underway. Yet, in seeking to shift the conversation on gambling-related harm from one focused on individual responsibility to an issue of public health, the inquiry called for broader and more complex systemic reform, including a fundamental restructuring of governmental responsibility.

Attachment A:    Committee recommendations

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