What changes for gambling ads in Australia in 2027

The short answer

On January 1, 2027, the Interactive Gambling Amendment (Gambling Reform) Act 2026 moves the rules for betting ads into the Interactive Gambling Act and tightens them. Licensed bookmakers’ ads will be kept out of live sport coverage during the day, capped on TV, kept off radio during the school run, shown online only to logged-in adults who haven’t opted out, and banned from uniforms, venues and celebrity endorsements. Bookmakers will also no longer be allowed to pay commissions tied to what their customers do. The Act passed Parliament in August 2026 and received assent on August 26, 2026.

It isn’t the total ban on gambling advertising that a parliamentary committee recommended in 2023. Ads for illegal gambling services were already banned and stay banned, with higher penalties.

The new rules for betting ads

The new rules cover “wagering advertising content”: advertising, promotional or sponsorship content for licensed betting services. Most carry a civil penalty of up to 1,000 penalty units, which is $364,000, or five times as much for a company.

Live sport.

• Between 5:00am and 8:30pm, no betting ads in conjunction with live coverage of a sporting event, from 15 minutes before its scheduled start until 5 minutes after it ends. That applies to broadcasts and to online content.
• Overnight, from 8:30pm to 5:00am, betting ads are banned while play is live.
• Esports competitions count as sporting events. Racing doesn’t.

Television. Between 5:00am and 8:30pm, a channel may show no more than three betting ads in any 60-minute period.

Radio. No betting ads on school days from 8am to 9am and from 3pm to 4pm.

Online. Online services, including websites, social media and on-demand streaming, may only show betting ads to people in Australia who are using a registered account, have confirmed their age and haven’t opted out. Services dedicated to racing, or wholly or principally to wagering, are exempt from this rule. The Act also sets up a Wagering Advertising Opt-out Register.

Uniforms and venues. No betting ads on sports uniforms or at sporting venues. Sponsorship arrangements made before the bill was introduced may continue until the end of December 31, 2031.

People. Ads can’t use current or former professional athletes, celebrities, social media influencers or other prominent people to promote betting.

Odds. Promoting odds is banned on broadcasts, except for racing.

Content. Betting ads mustn’t include harmful or misleading material, and leaving out a responsible gambling message that a law requires counts as harmful content.

Exceptions. Exceptions apply to programs, channels and online services dedicated to racing. News, current affairs and documentary content is exempt only if no one receives a direct or indirect benefit from a licensed betting provider for it. Online services that carry betting ads must keep records for 12 months.

Commissions and inducements

No commissions tied to customer activity. From January 1, 2027, a licensed bookmaker may not provide, offer or promise a commission relating to customer activity. The Act defines “commission” widely: it includes “any commission, incentive, bonus, referral fee, revenue share, profit share, performance payment, variable remuneration or other benefit”. Customer activity includes opening or reactivating an account, depositing money, placing bets and removing gambling minimisation measures.

Section 62ZT applies this to anyone involved in “acquiring, retaining, reactivating, managing or referring customers”: the bookmaker’s own employees and agents, and anyone else it engages to provide services, such as an affiliate website that refers customers. The bookmaker faces a civil penalty of up to 1,000 penalty units for commissions paid or offered from January 1, 2027. The Parliamentary Library noted before the vote that the new limits could lead to “a shift to other, more subtle, forms of promotional activity – such as affiliate marketing”.

Inducements to vulnerable customers. Bookmakers won’t be allowed to send inducements, such as credits, gifts, rebates, rewards, tokens or vouchers, by direct marketing or on social media to “designated customers”: people whose account has been open for 14 days or less, former BetStop registrants (within 90 days of leaving, or without fresh consent) and customers at risk of gambling harm. Bookmakers will also have to monitor customers’ activity to identify people at risk. These rules start on a later date, still to be set by notifiable instrument.

Illegal gambling services

The Act also adds new tools against offshore operators that are illegal in Australia, such as online casinos:

• Payments: banks and payment providers must stop payments to illegal gambling services, including in digital currency.
• Access: internet providers, DNS providers, app stores and search engines must stop their services being used to provide or reach them.
• Removal notices: ACMA can tell online services and hosts to remove ads for illegal gambling, search engines to delete links and app stores to remove apps, generally within 24 hours.
• Ads: under new section 61AB, an ad for an illegal gambling service on any website or online service that people in Australia can access counts as published in Australia. Until now, a website counted only if most of its visitors were likely to be in Australia. The civil penalty for advertising an illegal gambling service rises from 180 to 1,000 penalty units, and to 5,000 for ads on social media.
• Lotteries: online keno and foreign-matched lotteries, bets on the results of overseas lotteries, become prohibited.

See are online casinos legal in Australia? for how ACMA deals with illegal sites today.

The rules until December 31, 2026

Live sport. Betting ads and the promotion of odds aren’t allowed during live sport broadcasts between 5:00am and 8:30pm, including online streams, Liquor & Gaming NSW says. These rules are set by broadcasting industry codes of practice and the Online Content Service Provider Rules. From 2027, the Act’s own rules replace the Online Content Service Provider Rules, and the broadcasting codes continue to apply.

Taglines. Since March 2023 (March 30 in NSW), licensed bookmakers’ ads have had to carry one of seven taglines under the National Consumer Protection Framework for online wagering, which the federal government and all states and territories have agreed to:

• “Chances are you’re about to lose.”
• “Think. Is this a bet you really want to place?”
• “What’s gambling really costing you?”
• “What are you prepared to lose today? Set a deposit limit.”
• “Imagine what you could be buying instead.”
• “You win some. You lose more.”
• “What are you really gambling with?”

Each comes with a call to action, such as “For free and confidential support call 1800 858 858 or visit gamblinghelponline.org.au”. Under the same framework, bookmakers can’t offer credit, vouchers or other rewards as an inducement, can’t offer free bets unless the winnings can be withdrawn, and need your consent before sending you direct marketing.

State inducement bans.

• New South Wales makes it an offence to publish or communicate any inducement to gamble, including an inducement to open a betting account, refer a friend or keep an account open. A disclaimer saying the offer isn’t available in NSW doesn’t help. The maximum penalty is $110,000 for a company and $11,000 for an individual. NSW also bans gambling ads relating to a sporting event in progress, including live odds. A third party, such as a website, can be liable if it publishes a prohibited ad under an agreement with a bookmaker or for a benefit. In April 2023, Liquor & Gaming NSW fined Betr $210,000 through 14 penalty notices, which it called “the largest ever fine issued to a wagering operator for offering inducements in NSW”.
• Victoria prohibits offering “any credit, voucher, reward, or other benefit” as an incentive to open an account or refer someone else, under section 4.7.10 of the Gambling Regulation Act 2003.
• South Australia’s code of practice, in force since January 1, 2026, bans ads offering credit, vouchers or rewards as an inducement to gamble or to open or keep an account, and bans images of cash. It also bars providers from offering any inducement aimed at encouraging a person to gamble.

How the law came about

• June 2023: a House of Representatives committee’s report on online gambling, “You win some, you lose more”, made 31 recommendations. Recommendation 26 called for a comprehensive ban on online gambling advertising, phased in over three years; recommendation 16 for a ban on inducements; recommendation 21 for a ban on commissions to staff or third parties who refer people to online gambling.
• April 2, 2026: the government announced its package of reforms. Its formal response, in May 2026, “notes the 31 recommendations”. The package set the daytime period from 6:00am; the Act as passed uses 5:00am.
• July 2 to August 26, 2026: the bill was introduced in the House on July 2, passed the House on August 18 and the Senate on August 19, and received assent on August 26.
• From 2030: the Act requires a review of the new advertising, inducement and opt-out rules after they’ve been in force for three years.

If gambling is causing you problems, call the National Gambling Helpline on 1800 858 858, free and 24/7, or see where to get help.