Labor pledges opt-out register for online gambling ads as Pocock calls out shortfalls in government’s bill
The Labor government has pledged a new single-service opt-out register for gambling ads – an idea similar to the Do Not Call register for spam calls – as part of amendments to its wagering ad bill, as well as restrictions on inducements and limiting commissions for agents.
The communications minister, Anika Wells, has also confirmed gambling companies will face a new levy to pay for the register, a beefed-up measure to curb wagering ads, after concerns were raised through a Senate inquiry that people would struggle to find or complete individual opt-out options on each online service.
The measure falls short of calls from some, including Labor and Liberal MPs, for an “opt-in” model for gambling ads, or for a complete ban on online advertising.
But despite Labor’s hopes to speed its gambling changes through parliament this week, members of the Coalition, Greens and independent David Pocock savaged the government’s bills in scathing comments in a Senate inquiry report, calling out “deficiencies” in curbing ads.
The Albanese government’s gambling reforms are expected to proceed quickly through parliament this week, with Labor sources saying they hoped the changes contained in two separate bills would pass both houses before the end of Thursday.
Despite the Senate report, government sources remain confident of an imminent agreement with the opposition leader, Angus Taylor, after multiple meetings with Anthony Albanese last week – even though the Coalition has not yet publicly committed to supporting the package.
While a further raft of amendments to the bill are likely to be outlined on Tuesday, Wells on Monday introduced a third bill setting out changes the government proposes to make to its own legislation.
The bill’s explanatory memorandum says the government’s plans include “restricting the use of inducements by licensed interactive wagering service providers”, as well as plans to prohibit “inducement-based direct marketing and social media advertising to certain customers”. It also aims to restrict “attempts to obtain consent to receive such marketing [and] prohibits certain commission-based referral arrangements”.
“The government has listened carefully to the evidence presented during the recent Senate inquiry and through ongoing stakeholder engagement. We are particularly concerned by evidence about wagering inducements and the role these practices can play in encouraging gambling and exacerbating gambling-related harm,” Wells told parliament in introducing the new bill.
The new focus on wagering inducements – which were not addressed in Labor’s initial legislation – came after allegations in explosive parliamentary hearings this month that wagering companies provided illegal drugs and access to sex workers to keep problem gamblers betting. Betting giants Sportsbet and Tabcorp have said there is no evidence to substantiate these claims.
A major change contained in Monday’s third bill is a new “Wagering Advertising Opt-out Register”. While neither Wells’ speech nor the explanatory memorandum explains exactly how this would work, the explanation says it would be “a single mechanism through which individuals may opt out of receiving wagering advertising from online content service providers”.
Wells told parliament that the register would “provide Australians with a ‘one-stop shop’ to opt out of seeing wagering advertising on online platforms”. It will be administered and established by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.
Guardian Australia is seeking information about how the register would operate. Government sources conceded it would be a complex measure, with more details yet to be confirmed. It is unclear whether the register would be ready in time for 1 January 2027, when many measures in the government’s wagering changes come into force.
Labor’s initial bill had stopped short of enacting a full ban on wagering ads online, as recommended by Peta Murphy’s landmark 2023 parliamentary report, in favour of establishing a “triple lock” system for ads to be shown online; that online ads could only be shown to users who are logged in and aged over 18, and provided with an opt-out feature.
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But gambling harm advocates and critics of Labor’s bill had criticised this system, saying existing opt-out features on streaming services or social media platforms were often hard to find online, and that only a tiny percentage of users had made use of those features.
Pocock, in his comments for the Senate report, pointed out that SBS had told the committee only 130,000 of the 15 million account holders for its on-demand streaming service had opted-out of gambling ads.
The government’s new proposal for a single opt-out register is a compromise to provide an easier avenue for opting out of ads, without enacting a full ban or switching to an opt-in.
“This bill enables the ACMA to recover the costs of those activities through a levy imposed on licensed interactive wagering service providers. It is appropriate that the wagering industry, rather than taxpayers, bears the costs of regulating these activities,” Wells said.
In the Senate report, Labor senators recommended the bill pass. But senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the Greens would not support the bill in its current form, calling again for a full online ad ban, a national gambling regulator and the banning of all inducements.
Pocock said the bill would “not break the connection between sport and gambling”, which has been one of Labor’s stated aims, and would not minimise children’s exposure to wagering ads. He also questioned whether the government had put the interests of sporting codes and wagering companies above public health concerns around gambling harm.
Coalition senators Sarah Henderson and Dean Smith wrote that “the vast majority of Australians” who gamble “do so responsibly”. But while they also praised the “important role that the wagering and related industries play”, they too raised concerns about inducements and the targeting of children.
“The government has had more than three years to get this right. Regrettably, this bill falls well short.”
Read the full story at The Guardian ↗ · The Guardian ↗ · The Guardian ↗
The new measure falls short of calls for gambling ads to move to an opt-in model, or for an outright ban. Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates. Get our breaking…
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The Labor government has pledged a new single-service opt-out register for gambling ads – an idea similar to the Do Not Call register for spam calls – as part of amendments to its wagering ad bill, as well as restrictions on inducements and limiting commissions for agents.
The communications minister, Anika Wells, has also confirmed gambling companies will face a new levy to pay for the register, a beefed-up measure to curb wagering ads, after concerns were raised through a Senate inquiry that people would struggle to find or complete individual opt-out options on each online service.
The measure falls short of calls from some, including Labor and Liberal MPs, for an “opt-in” model for gambling ads, or for a complete ban on online advertising.
But despite Labor’s hopes to speed its gambling changes through parliament this week, members of the Coalition, Greens and independent David Pocock savaged the government’s bills in scathing comments in a Senate inquiry report, calling out “deficiencies” in curbing ads.
The Albanese government’s gambling reforms are expected to proceed quickly through parliament this week, with Labor sources saying they hoped the changes contained in two separate bills would pass both houses before the end of Thursday.
Despite the Senate report, government sources remain confident of an imminent agreement with the opposition leader, Angus Taylor, after multiple meetings with Anthony Albanese last week – even though the Coalition has not yet publicly committed to supporting the package.
While a further raft of amendments to the bill are likely to be outlined on Tuesday, Wells on Monday introduced a third bill setting out changes the government proposes to make to its own legislation.
The bill’s explanatory memorandum says the government’s plans include “restricting the use of inducements by licensed interactive wagering service providers”, as well as plans to prohibit “inducement-based direct marketing and social media advertising to certain customers”. It also aims to restrict “attempts to obtain consent to receive such marketing [and] prohibits certain commission-based referral arrangements”.
“The government has listened carefully to the evidence presented during the recent Senate inquiry and through ongoing stakeholder engagement. We are particularly concerned by evidence about wagering inducements and the role these practices can play in encouraging gambling and exacerbating gambling-related harm,” Wells told parliament in introducing the new bill.
The new focus on wagering inducements – which were not addressed in Labor’s initial legislation – came after allegations in explosive parliamentary hearings this month that wagering companies provided illegal drugs and access to sex workers to keep problem gamblers betting. Betting giants Sportsbet and Tabcorp have said there is no evidence to substantiate these claims.
A major change contained in Monday’s third bill is a new “Wagering Advertising Opt-out Register”. While neither Wells’ speech nor the explanatory memorandum explains exactly how this would work, the explanation says it would be “a single mechanism through which individuals may opt out of receiving wagering advertising from online content service providers”.
Wells told parliament that the register would “provide Australians with a ‘one-stop shop’ to opt out of seeing wagering advertising on online platforms”. It will be administered and established by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.
Guardian Australia is seeking information about how the register would operate. Government sources conceded it would be a complex measure, with more details yet to be confirmed. It is unclear whether the register would be ready in time for 1 January 2027, when many measures in the government’s wagering changes come into force.
Labor’s initial bill had stopped short of enacting a full ban on wagering ads online, as recommended by Peta Murphy’s landmark 2023 parliamentary report, in favour of establishing a “triple lock” system for ads to be shown online; that online ads could only be shown to users who are logged in and aged over 18, and provided with an opt-out feature.
after newsletter promotion
But gambling harm advocates and critics of Labor’s bill had criticised this system, saying existing opt-out features on streaming services or social media platforms were often hard to find online, and that only a tiny percentage of users had made use of those features.
Pocock, in his comments for the Senate report, pointed out that SBS had told the committee only 130,000 of the 15 million account holders for its on-demand streaming service had opted-out of gambling ads.
The government’s new proposal for a single opt-out register is a compromise to provide an easier avenue for opting out of ads, without enacting a full ban or switching to an opt-in.
“This bill enables the ACMA to recover the costs of those activities through a levy imposed on licensed interactive wagering service providers. It is appropriate that the wagering industry, rather than taxpayers, bears the costs of regulating these activities,” Wells said.
In the Senate report, Labor senators recommended the bill pass. But senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the Greens would not support the bill in its current form, calling again for a full online ad ban, a national gambling regulator and the banning of all inducements.
Pocock said the bill would “not break the connection between sport and gambling”, which has been one of Labor’s stated aims, and would not minimise children’s exposure to wagering ads. He also questioned whether the government had put the interests of sporting codes and wagering companies above public health concerns around gambling harm.
Coalition senators Sarah Henderson and Dean Smith wrote that “the vast majority of Australians” who gamble “do so responsibly”. But while they also praised the “important role that the wagering and related industries play”, they too raised concerns about inducements and the targeting of children.
“The government has had more than three years to get this right. Regrettably, this bill falls well short.”
Read the full story at The Guardian ↗ · The Guardian ↗ · The Guardian ↗
The Labor government has pledged a new single-service opt-out register for gambling ads – an idea similar to the Do Not Call register for spam calls – as part of amendments to its wagering ad bill, as well as restrictions on inducements and limiting commissions for agents.
The communications minister, Anika Wells, has also confirmed gambling companies will face a new levy to pay for the register, a beefed-up measure to curb wagering ads, after concerns were raised through a Senate inquiry that people would struggle to find or complete individual opt-out options on each online service.
The measure falls short of calls from some, including Labor and Liberal MPs, for an “opt-in” model for gambling ads, or for a complete ban on online advertising.
But despite Labor’s hopes to speed its gambling changes through parliament this week, members of the Coalition, Greens and independent David Pocock savaged the government’s bills in scathing comments in a Senate inquiry report, calling out “deficiencies” in curbing ads.
The Albanese government’s gambling reforms are expected to proceed quickly through parliament this week, with Labor sources saying they hoped the changes contained in two separate bills would pass both houses before the end of Thursday.
Despite the Senate report, government sources remain confident of an imminent agreement with the opposition leader, Angus Taylor, after multiple meetings with Anthony Albanese last week – even though the Coalition has not yet publicly committed to supporting the package.
While a further raft of amendments to the bill are likely to be outlined on Tuesday, Wells on Monday introduced a third bill setting out changes the government proposes to make to its own legislation.
The bill’s explanatory memorandum says the government’s plans include “restricting the use of inducements by licensed interactive wagering service providers”, as well as plans to prohibit “inducement-based direct marketing and social media advertising to certain customers”. It also aims to restrict “attempts to obtain consent to receive such marketing [and] prohibits certain commission-based referral arrangements”.
“The government has listened carefully to the evidence presented during the recent Senate inquiry and through ongoing stakeholder engagement. We are particularly concerned by evidence about wagering inducements and the role these practices can play in encouraging gambling and exacerbating gambling-related harm,” Wells told parliament in introducing the new bill.
The new focus on wagering inducements – which were not addressed in Labor’s initial legislation – came after allegations in explosive parliamentary hearings this month that wagering companies provided illegal drugs and access to sex workers to keep problem gamblers betting. Betting giants Sportsbet and Tabcorp have said there is no evidence to substantiate these claims.
A major change contained in Monday’s third bill is a new “Wagering Advertising Opt-out Register”. While neither Wells’ speech nor the explanatory memorandum explains exactly how this would work, the explanation says it would be “a single mechanism through which individuals may opt out of receiving wagering advertising from online content service providers”.
Wells told parliament that the register would “provide Australians with a ‘one-stop shop’ to opt out of seeing wagering advertising on online platforms”. It will be administered and established by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.
Guardian Australia is seeking information about how the register would operate. Government sources conceded it would be a complex measure, with more details yet to be confirmed. It is unclear whether the register would be ready in time for 1 January 2027, when many measures in the government’s wagering changes come into force.
Labor’s initial bill had stopped short of enacting a full ban on wagering ads online, as recommended by Peta Murphy’s landmark 2023 parliamentary report, in favour of establishing a “triple lock” system for ads to be shown online; that online ads could only be shown to users who are logged in and aged over 18, and provided with an opt-out feature.
after newsletter promotion
But gambling harm advocates and critics of Labor’s bill had criticised this system, saying existing opt-out features on streaming services or social media platforms were often hard to find online, and that only a tiny percentage of users had made use of those features.
Pocock, in his comments for the Senate report, pointed out that SBS had told the committee only 130,000 of the 15 million account holders for its on-demand streaming service had opted-out of gambling ads.
The government’s new proposal for a single opt-out register is a compromise to provide an easier avenue for opting out of ads, without enacting a full ban or switching to an opt-in.
“This bill enables the ACMA to recover the costs of those activities through a levy imposed on licensed interactive wagering service providers. It is appropriate that the wagering industry, rather than taxpayers, bears the costs of regulating these activities,” Wells said.
In the Senate report, Labor senators recommended the bill pass. But senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the Greens would not support the bill in its current form, calling again for a full online ad ban, a national gambling regulator and the banning of all inducements.
Pocock said the bill would “not break the connection between sport and gambling”, which has been one of Labor’s stated aims, and would not minimise children’s exposure to wagering ads. He also questioned whether the government had put the interests of sporting codes and wagering companies above public health concerns around gambling harm.
Coalition senators Sarah Henderson and Dean Smith wrote that “the vast majority of Australians” who gamble “do so responsibly”. But while they also praised the “important role that the wagering and related industries play”, they too raised concerns about inducements and the targeting of children.
“The government has had more than three years to get this right. Regrettably, this bill falls well short.”
Read the full story at The Guardian ↗ · The Guardian ↗ · The Guardian ↗
This lens runs the verified story through Cinnamon's AI — wired in the next step.
- The new measure falls short of calls for gambling ads to move to an opt-in model, or for an outright ban.
- Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates.
- Get our breaking…