What the gambling reform Act 2026 changes from 1 January 2027

What each schedule of the reform Act 2026 does

Limits on wagering advertising

Part 7C bars wagering advertising content during live coverage of sporting events, on radio at school drop-off and pick-up times and more than three times an hour on television at certain times. It bars it in children's programming, on sporting uniforms and at sporting venues, and it bars the use of athletes and celebrities to promote wagering. It also prohibits the promotion of odds on broadcasts and datacasts and content that is harmful or misleading. Programs and services dedicated to racing are among the exceptions.

Online services may carry wagering advertising only if they take reasonable steps to keep restricted users away from it, require other users to use registered accounts and let them opt out. The advertising rules page gives the detail.

Disruption of illegal services

Banks and payment system participants must prevent, so far as reasonably practicable, payments from an account held in Australia to a designated interactive gambling service provider or to a person acting for one. The civil penalty is 1,000 penalty units. Internet service providers, domain name system providers, app stores and search engines must stop their own services being used for such a service, with the same 1,000-unit penalty behind the duty.

The ACMA may give a removal notice to an online service provider, which then has 24 hours to take an illegal gambling advertisement down, and may tell a hosting provider to stop hosting a service. A social media platform that publishes such an advertisement faces a civil penalty of 5,000 penalty units.

Inducements and commissions

Part 7D stops a licensed wagering provider from sending messages or making calls that offer inducements to certain customers, and from putting inducement material before them on social media. It also stops a provider from paying a commission linked to customer activity, such as opening an account, depositing or placing a bet. Costs of administering the new Parts are recovered through a levy under the Interactive Gambling (Cost Recovery Levy) Act 2026.

BetStop

Schedule 3 raises the penalties for a licensed wagering provider that tries to influence someone not to join the register or to leave it. Giving such a person a benefit carries 500 penalty units as an offence instead of 120, and 750 as a civil penalty instead of 180. Doing any other act with that intention rises from 60 to 250 and from 90 to 375 penalty units. The BetStop page explains what the register does.

A rule that applies before the start date

Section 4 of the Act applies from assent. A person who enters into or carries out a scheme whose sole or dominant purpose is to avoid Part 7C or 7D contravenes it and is liable to a civil penalty of 7,500 penalty units.

How the Act reached this point

Sources

• Interactive Gambling Amendment (Gambling Reform) Act 2026, Federal Register of Legislation
• Interactive Gambling Act 2001, with its amendment history, compilation of 14 October 2024