Australians React After GTA Online Disables Casino Features
Australian GTA Online players woke up to an unexpected surprise this week after Rockstar disabled the game’s casino and betting activities across Australia.
The move essentially prevents Australian players from accessing casino games such as blackjack, roulette, poker and Lucky Wheel spins inside GTA Online. While Rockstar hasn’t publicly explained the decision, it comes at a time when Australia’s government debates wider gambling reforms, including the now-infamous advertising ban, which is yet to come into effect.
Judging by the reaction online, Australian players weren’t particularly upset. Most of the commenters on social media poked fun at the decision, with many users pointing out the irony of Rockstar removing a virtual casino while gambling advertisements continue to feature prominently across Australian television, sporting events, and social media.
Rockstar Removes GTA Gambling While Australia Still Debates Gambling Reform
The decision to remove gambling from GTA Online was first reported by gaming outlet IGN, which found that Australian players could no longer access the Diamond Casino & Resort’s gambling activities, including blackjack, roulette, poker, pokie machines and the Lucky Wheel.
Rockstar has yet to explain why the feature was disabled, and there has been no indication whether the change is temporary or permanent.
Many, however, believe that the timing is no coincidence. Australia has spent the past two years debating tougher gambling regulation following the Murphy Review, with the Federal Government proposing new restrictions on gambling advertising and stronger consumer protections.
Much of that legislation is still working its way through Parliament and isn’t expected to take effect until 2027, but Rockstar appears to have acted first by removing virtual casino gambling from one of the country’s most popular online games.
Whether the decision was prompted by legal advice, internal policy, or simply as a precautionary measure remains unclear, but it has certainly caught Australian players off guard.
Australian Players Couldn't Resist Pointing Out the Irony
Many of the most-liked comments on social media were about the contradiction between Rockstar’s decision and the situation in Australia. Several users questioned why a fictional casino using virtual currency had been disabled while gambling advertisements for real-money betting continue to appear throughout live sport and across television.
One Facebook user joked, “But every other commercial is sports betting,” while another one summed up the mood by writing, “Imagine they just got rid of the gambling feature on GTA 5 before getting rid of gambling ads in real life.” Another sarcastically remarked that the change had been “Brought to you by DraftKings.”
The same sentiment appeared on Instagram, where one commenter wrote, “‘Gamble responsibly’ on every second advertisement,” highlighting what many Australians viewed as the irony of removing GTA’s virtual casino after spending weeks watching the 2026 FIFA World Cup, where betting company ads were a regular feature of every commercial break, including the unpopular ‘hydration break’.
Another user added, “I’d rather gamble my pretend money in Grand Theft Auto but if they are taking this feature away, I’m sure others will just go to their local Casino or TAB to get their hit.”
Others questioned the logic of the decision altogether, arguing that players were gambling with in-game currency that has no real-world value and suggesting that disabling the feature was unlikely to have any meaningful impact.
Some users also added that GTA is an 18+ game, so what’s the point of blocking the feature when kids shouldn’t be playing it anyway?
Nobody outside Rockstar really knows whether the company was responding to legal advice, is preparing for future regulation or is simply taking a cautious approach.
What was obvious from the comments, however, was that many players were far more critical of Australia’s approach to real-world gambling.
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