Australian Gambling Laws – Everything You Should Know as a Player

• Pubs, clubs, betting shops and land-based casinos are legally permitted to operate under specific state licences.
• Only licensed Australian bookmakers are allowed to offer online sports betting to Aussies.
• Australian bookies are forbidden to promote sports betting during live broadcasts and to promote their brands on sportswear.
• Lotteries and race betting are fully legal and regulated.
• Casinos are prohibited from offering online casino games to Australian players by federal law.
• Playing at offshore online casinos doesn’t violate any regulations for Australian players.

Since we Australians have one of the largest gambling cultures in the world, the government had to step in and set ground rules. As a result, there is essentially one behind every spin and wager you make.

Even if things are definitely more complex and stricter now than they were in the past, you can stay ahead of it all and understand the legal issues if you know the basics. And to the basics, we will stick.

First of all, gambling regulation is a huge responsibility for a single authority, so the Australians divide it among multiple regulators. The main division of labour falls between the distinct state authorities and the federal government in Canberra.

At the state level, land-based gambling is regulated by a specific body (such as Liquor & Gaming in New South Wales). Basically, you can tell if a casino or betting store is completely regulated if you can physically enter it. Yes, that’s how micro-managed it is.

These state regulators oversee the TAB outlets, grant licenses to physical casinos, and determine the number of pokie machines that can be installed in local bars. So, nothing that happens on physical ground is illegal.

On the other hand, the federal government deals with online gambling. They regulate online betting apps on your phone, set national laws for online sports betting, and try to prevent offshore casinos from targeting Australian players.

Everything you need to know about the legality of online gambling in Australia is written down in the Interactive Gambling Act of 2001. This is a heavy, legal document that isn’t an easy read; it’s the main federal law governing your experience as an online casino gambler.

So, the IGA prohibits companies from offering live-streamed tables with human dealers or online casino games to Aussies, including pokies, roulette, and blackjack. Because of this, authorised Australian bookies only deal in sports and racing.

The goal of the IGA is to instruct gambling operators on what they are permitted to provide to Australians. Read that well: not to instruct players, but operators, and this is exactly what a lot of gamblers misunderstand.

You playing at foreign online casinos does not violate any Australian laws. This law’s limitations apply only to businesses that offer the games.

The Australian government has recently introduced a reform bill for the IGA, one that has been expected for years. However, it doesn’t change much of the underlying rules I mentioned above – online gambling is still illegal, and the primary goal of this amendment was to further restrict sports betting.

Changes are mostly related to advertising sports betting during live sports broadcasts. Sports betting ads are banned from appearing during the daytime (6:00 AM to 8:30 PM) and overnight (8:30 PM to 6:00 AM). Also, advertising bookmakers on sports jerseys and venue billboards is strictly forbidden.

The reform bill also tightens the rules behind sweepstakes casinos, which were a grey area until now. Many subscription-based ‘giveaways’ and sweepstakes models (where you buy a membership for ongoing entries into luxury car, house, or cash draws) have lost their legal status. The bill also includes a new amendment that forbids online keno and foreign lotteries from being offered to Aussie gamblers.

Now, the federal government I mentioned above is represented by the ACMA, and its primary goal is to monitor online activity and ensure that operators comply with federal laws and regulations (including the IGA). Simply put, to hunt down casinos that offer online gambling to Aussies.

ACMA agents follow international casinos online that tempt Australian gamblers to sign up and deposit. When they discover an unlicensed or ‘dangerous’ casino (according to their strict standards), they go to ISPs (internet service providers) and get the website shut down.

Additionally, they oversee BetStop, the nationwide one-click system that excludes you from all legal online Australian betting sites if you need it.

The Australian federal government issued a credit card ban with the Interactive Gambling Amendment (Credit and Other Measures) Bill 2023, which came into effect in June, 2024.

With this, it is not possible to use credit cards at legal sports betting sites. This restriction is designed to ensure players cannot gamble with funds they do not own.

This ban also includes cryptocurrencies and blocks legal operators from accepting Bitcoin or USDT from Australian residents.

Each state has a distinct local regulator whose job is to licence physical venues, oversee their operations, and regulate the pokies and local bookmakers. Basically, everything related to land-based gambling.

Actually, these are the authorities you should get in touch with if you ever have a disagreement with a local club or want to find out if a certain operator is legitimate:

• New South Wales: Liquor & Gaming NSW
• Victoria: Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission (VGCCC)
• Queensland: Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation (OLGR)
• Northern Territory: Northern Territory Racing and Wagering Commission
• Western Australia: Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries (Racing, Gaming and Liquor)
• South Australia: Consumer and Business Services (CBS)
• Tasmania: Tasmanian Liquor and Gaming Commission
• Australian Capital Territory: ACT Gambling and Racing Commission

The fact that land-based casinos and betting sites operate under the strict oversight of state regulators gives players a reassuring sense that, whatever happens, they are protected. Games are tested, everything is routinely verified, and payouts follow strict rules.

So, if you’d still rather walk into a physical venue, review the following types of gambling that are fully legal and constantly overseen.

Since you’re reading this, I assume you’ve probably heard of (or visited) SkyCity Adelaide, The Star Sydney, or the Crown resorts.

These, along with just a few others (around 14 in total across the country), are the veteran brick-and-mortar casinos that have stood the test of time and remain strong. It goes without saying that they are all fully licensed and legal, and offer the following types of entertainment:

• Table games: roulette, blackjack, poker, and baccarat
• In-person sports and race betting
• Physical pokie machines
• Loyalty programs

In these casinos, everything is controlled and overseen: the deposit process, payout rates, game fairness, staff behaviour, and regular ID checks to confirm you are of legal age.

Pokies are everywhere in Australia – you’ll find them in your local pub, social venues, and meeting points, and of course, casinos. These are being placed across the country, except in Western Australia, where you can only see them inside a casino.

So, every machine is put through a thorough testing process before it is placed anywhere. Although it’s safe to say that RTPs are typically lower than what you’ll get online, they are also regulated.

Betting on horses, greyhounds, and harness racing isn’t any less of a ritual than playing pokie machines in Australia, so it’s fully legal and very much practised by punters to this day. These days, you can place bets through retail TAB outlets, in physical betting shops, or at the racetracks.

This is what you’ll get if you choose to wager in person:

• Placing bets with fixed odds
• Bet on tote (parimutuel pools)
• Cash out winning tickets in person
• Steer clear of online account restrictions

Retail betting is still the preferred option for some Aussies, despite the current boom in the online market, and it’s clear why. As with casinos and pubs, everything is state-regulated and licensed, and it doesn’t require verification emails or online payments. However, as alluring as this simplicity is, things completely change when you go online.

Australian laws and regulations get a little more complicated when it comes to online gambling, but you also have the most alternatives as a player. The thing is, different gambling forms enjoy different statuses in the Australian online gambling market, and I’ll tell you more about each below.

Let’s emphasise it again: offering online casino games to Australian players is forbidden by federal law. The Interactive Gambling Act forbids casino operators to offer pokies, live dealer games, roulette, and blackjack in an online setting. This is why you won’t find an Australian-licensed online casino – a site that advertises like that is simply misguiding you.

And for this, thousands of Aussies who want to play pokies on their PCs or phones turn to international casino sites that accept them. From your end, you are not breaking any rules, but the casinos themselves are breaching the law.

Hosting live dealer games and delivering to Aussies via a live stream is illegal in Australia. Even though they differ from pokies, they still fall under the online casino gambling category because they are interactive and occur online, so operators are forbidden from providing such a service.

But similar to the pokies, many foreign websites offer Australian gamers large live dealer rooms where they can play live poker, live roulette, live blackjack, and even live game shows. Legally speaking, the situation is the same: operators are subject to the law, but live casino gamblers who join foreign sites are not.

The situation is greener on this side of the fence; online sports betting is fully legal in Australia. If you wish to bet on footy or the races from your phone, you can do it at many licensed Australian bookmakers, such as Ladbrokes or Tabcorp. There are also other smaller bookies that offer online betting, most of them in the Northern Territory.

But sports betting also comes with restrictions. The IGA states that even though you can bet online, you can’t do it in-play, meaning you can’t bet with live odds while the match or race is ongoing. The workaround bookmakers have come up with is to call the bookie’s live operator on a landline and then place the live bet. It works, and it’s what has kept these bookies in the game for so long.

Count yourself lucky if lottery, bingo, or keno are your favourite types of casino games. Lotteries are completely legal in Australia and are fully controlled by the ACMA, the IGA, and the Northern Territory Racing and Wagering Commission. Online lotteries, on the other hand, remain forbidden under the IGA, as explicitly stated in the 2026 reform bill.

Bingo and keno don’t get much attention because they aren’t considered a serious form of gambling, so the rules are more relaxed here. Both are legal and frequently organised by local social clubs. Actually, as long as the venue isn’t profiting from the prize pool, they are all allowed to offer this kind of entertainment.

Less popular forms like fantasy and eSports betting, as well as Sweepstakes casinos practised by Aussie gamblers, are also subject to laws. However, for some, the rules are a bit vague and less strict than those for pokies or online blackjack.

• Fantasy Sports: The debate over whether fantasy sports are legal or not in Australia is still ongoing these days. Although they are typically categorised as ‘games of skill’ rather than pure gambling, the operator of a betting or casino website typically requires a Corporate Bookmaker License (commonly from the Northern Territory) if you are playing for real money. Fantasy sports odds are now available at many major Australian bookmakers.
• eSports Betting: It doesn’t really matter whether you are betting on an AFL club or a Dota 2 team because eSports betting has the same status as traditional sports betting. So, if you are registered with an Australian-licensed bookmaker, eSports betting is completely legal. The same workaround applies: in order to place an in-play bet, you must call a landline, reach a live operator, and take it from there.
• Sweepstakes Casinos: Now, with Sweepstakes casinos, you don’t deposit real money; your currency is virtual coins that you buy and later trade for prizes. So, Sweepstakes operators argue that they don’t fall under the traditional casino category, but ACMA doesn’t agree. It is stated that if an online casino allows the purchasing of virtual coins, earning ‘sweepstakes’ and then redeeming them for AUD or crypto, it is still operating illegally in Australia.

Since federal law forbids casinos from offering online games to anyone in the country, players turn to international casino sites when they want to play pokies from home, or from anywhere, for that matter.

Offshore casinos don’t fall under the jurisdiction of the Australian government, so they can’t be licensed by Australian authorities.

As we previously mentioned, the ACMA doesn’t target specific players; instead, it tries to prohibit the web addresses of these websites. But when you play online, you’re essentially escaping the security of the Australian legal system, and you do it at your own risk.

For instance, the ACMA and your local state ombudsman are powerless to assist you if a website chooses to freeze your account or reject your withdrawal request. So, be careful when choosing an international casino because you are trusting its reputation among players and its foreign license.

But why are these sites so attractive? Well, they offer quite literally every casino game type right on your desktop or phone – thousands of pokies, hundreds of live dealer games, progressive jackpots, and sometimes even sports betting on the same platform, all online.

Offshore online casinos offer more than Australian land-based casinos in terms of features and extras, and that’s a fact. On top of the obvious enormous game libraries, with thousands of games of all sorts, there’s much more here.

For instance, a physical casino can only offer so many physical pokie machines because of, well, space. That’s hardly a problem for online libraries, so you can come across casinos with even 10,000+ games in their collection, from more than 100 providers.

Besides that, this is what you’ll typically find:

• Online bonuses and promotions: These websites frequently offer bonuses that appear enormous (like an A$8,000 welcome package), but the wagering requirements are typically much higher than anything you’d find on a legal Australian sportsbook.
• Crypto and credit options: Many foreign online casinos continue to accept credit and debit cards and Bitcoin, even though Aussies have been prohibited from using their credit card for gambling since 2024.
• Elaborate loyalty programs: International online casinos offer semi-tiered loyalty programs and special VIP Clubs for players who stay, often with substantial prizes for reaching each level.

I mentioned already that the role of the ACMA is to hunt down illegal offshore online casinos whose target is Aussie gamblers. They’ve been doing this for years, and they have an official blacklist that keeps growing as it includes unethical and dangerous sites.

So, when the ACMA investigates and confirms that an offshore casino is unsafe for Aussies, it issues a formal directive to all local Internet Service Providers (ISPs), such as Telstra, Optus, and TPG. Then, the ISPs are legally required to block the site at the network level.

The reality for players is that playing on offshore sites can be risky because these sites operate outside Australian law.

Under the National Consumer Protection Framework (and with the recent reform bill of the IGA), licensed Australian bookmakers aren’t allowed to advertise sign-up bonuses to potential players, so they can’t use a bonus to attract you to play.

But this doesn’t mean that bonuses have disappeared completely. They are still available after you sign up, and you will still be able to claim cashback, loyalty perks, enhanced odds, and enjoy features like early cashout and similar.

Offshore online casinos aren’t affected by this rule, so they can and will advertise welcome packages and other promotions freely.

This is why you’ll often see large deposit matches and free spins available before you even sign up.

It makes perfect sense for Australia to take its responsible gambling laws extremely seriously, but they only apply if you play within the local system.

BetStop, the national self-exclusion registration, is the cornerstone in this case. You can ban yourself from all of the national authorised online and phone bookmakers at once with this free, government-run program.

Once you’re on the list, those bookies are legally prohibited from allowing you to register an account, place a bet, or get any marketing materials via email. If you’re done for good, you can opt for a lifetime ban or a cool-off period as brief as three months.

After spending years gambling online, the crucial part is knowing whose house rules apply.

Know that you are completely safe under both federal and state law if you choose to stick with a licensed local bookmaker or go to a real casino when you want to play roulette or pokies.

But you’re leaving that legal comfort zone if you choose foreign casinos that offer larger pokie libraries, live dealer games streamed online, and many more bonuses. At that point, you should reconsider every choice you make.

Whenever we test an international casino, we follow the same routine: start by confirming the license. We then go through a weeks-long testing using our standardised review process, and only then are we confident enough to mark an online casino safe.