Latest Gambling News: Australian Greens File Pre-emptive Bill Banning Gambling Ads, and more

Catch up on six of the stories our gambling compliance analysts have covered lately, and stay up-to-date on the latest news.

Australian Greens File Pre-emptive Bill Banning Gambling Ads

The Australian Greens party has introduced a bill to ban online gambling advertising in response to declining government support for total prohibition.

A private member’s initiative authored by South Australian Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, the bill attempts to force the government’s hand in responding to a parliamentary committee’s unanimous support for a full ad ban.

The bill resembles the committee’s recommendation on an advertising ban and would compel implementation within three years over four phases.

“If the major parties showed similar support to the Inquiry recommendations, this ban could be enacted immediately,” Hanson-Young told the Senate on Wednesday (October 9) after introducing the bill.

“Yet the Albanese Labor Government has since backed away from a full ban on gambling advertising, proving where their true loyalties lie — with the cashed-up gambling lobby and some of the big media companies and major sporting codes.”

Local media reported that the government will instead further tighten broadcast restrictions for online sports betting, while instituting a full ban on online advertising.

The bill is unlikely to make headway outside the Senate given that the government has a five-seat majority in the House of Representatives.

NSW Widens Greyhound Inquiry, Extends Deadline

A New South Wales (NSW) government inquiry into allegations of animal cruelty in the state’s greyhound racing industry has been extended by more than four months and will now investigate possible financial mismanagement.

The inquiry conducted by the acting head of the NSW Greyhound Welfare and Integrity Commission, Lea Drake, will continue until April 30 after receiving a “high volume of submissions”, the government said in a statement on Friday (October 11).

Gaming and racing minister David Harris approved Drake’s request for the extension and to bolster financial management scrutiny in a revised term of reference, it said.

The expansion of the inquiry’s schedule and scope bode ill for the greyhound regulator, Greyhound Racing NSW, whose CEO resigned in July.

Rob Macaulay departed just hours after media reports of its chief veterinarian blowing the whistle on a “morass” of cruelty toward dogs and forged rehoming data.

The NSW greyhound industry dodged a bullet in 2016 when the then conservative government reversed a decision to shut it down after pressure from industry, regional political forces and mass media with industry advertising interests.

Hearings in the current probe continue next week and will last until at least December, the statement said.

Benin Public Offering Of National Lottery Shares

The National Lottery of Benin (LNB) is going public, with up to 45 percent of the shares in the company being listed on the Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières (BRVM) stock exchange for Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo.

The state of Benin currently owns 100 percent of the shares in the company, which has increased turnover tenfold between 2016 and 2023 where it reached an estimated FCFA100,000,000,000 (€153,403,182) for the year, according to the LNB.

The sale of 35 to 45 percent of the shares was authorised by Decree No. 2024 – 1018, which was adopted by the Council of Ministers on July 17.

“This operation, which corresponds to a raising of an amount between FCFA33,600,000,000 and FCFA43,200,000,000 on the regional market, will allow the State of Benin, on the one hand, to guarantee the transparency of the partial sale operation and on the other hand, to contribute to the development of the regional stock market,” LNB said in a statement on October 3.

NSW Court Fines Former Online Betting Agency TexBet

The former owner of shuttered online bookmaker TexBet has been convicted in a New South Wales (NSW) state court and fined A$33,000 (US$22,000) for sending advertisements and allowing wagers from a customer who tried to close a company account.

The Downing Centre Local Court in Sydney on September 25 sentenced Tamworth, NSW-based O’Shea Bookmaking, which traded as TexBet, for breaching the Betting and Racing Act 1998.

The court found that TexBet sent four gambling advertisements even after the customer requested that the account be closed in May 2022. The company also accepted 75 bets from the customer after the request.

Online gambling regulator Liquor & Gaming NSW said in a statement on October 1 that the conviction was the first for an online betting agency for “direct marketing without consent and failing to close a betting account on request”.

Jane Lin, executive director of regulatory operations for Liquor & Gaming NSW, said TexBet “has broken a law that was put in place to protect vulnerable people who are trying to exclude themselves from gambling”.

However, the regulator’s statement referred to TexBet as if it were operational, with no clarification from Liquor & Gaming NSW that the operation was absorbed by a rival company a few months after the offences occurred.

TexBet was acquired for a reported A$10m by the Matthew Tripp-launched corporate bookmaker BetR in late 2022, then shut down in June 2023 after its customer accounts were moved to betR.

The fine is notable for being one of the largest to date for an apparent first offence by a corporate bookmaker, consistent with Liquor & Gaming NSW’s increasing impatience with industry lawbreaking.

Esportes da Sorte Avoids Brazil Shutdown Through Rio Licence

A second prominent operator excluded from a new federal whitelist has been able to obtain a state-level licence in Rio de Janeiro in order to remain in business during a current transition period.

Esportes da Sorte and its Onabet sister brand were officially authorised in Rio after acquiring the operations of Apostou.com operator ST Soft, according to a statement published late on Monday (October 7) by Rio lottery authority LOTERJ.

Both Esportes da Sorte and VaideBet, which was licensed by LOTERJ on October 1, were last week left off a national whitelist of websites permitted to remain in operation while their federal license applications remain under review.

The two Curaçao-licensed operators have been publicly connected to criminal money-laundering investigations and Brazil’s federal betting regulator indicated that they were not on the whitelist due to suitability concerns.

LOTERJ said it reviewed all documentation submitted by Esportes da Sorte and that the operator had also provided “certificates of suitability” before approval was granted.

Although the Rio lottery insists its licensees are legally permitted to operate throughout Brazil, Esportes da Sorte stated on social media that it still intends to obtain a federal licence and that it had filed an “administrative appeal” to that end.

France Launches Campaign Against Illegal Casinos Sites

France’s National Gaming Authority (ANJ) is launching a new campaign to remind players that online casino sites are illegal in the country and that as a result they are dangerous.

The campaign, which is branded “100% winning?” started its broadcast on Monday, October 7 on web banners, testimonials on TikTok, broadcasts on Snapchat and Twitch, and interactive ads on gaming apps.

According to the ANJ, half of all players said that they were unaware that online casino sites are illegal in France.

A study conducted by consulting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers on behalf of the ANJ in 2023 found that between 3 and 4 million people rolled the proverbial and literal dice on illegal gambling sites. The study is the impetus for the new campaign.

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