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A daily podcast delving into the biggest stories of the day throughout the sports betting and igaming sector.
In-Person (00:01.538)
This month, the gambling reform bill 2026 was introduced in Australia, marking a significant moment for the overhaul of regulation in one of the world's most mature markets. At the heart of the bill is a tightening of marketing regulations, with a range of measures brought forward aiming to tackle problem gambling in Australia. So what's in the bill and what does it mean for operators in the nation? Welcome back to iGaming Daily, supported by Optimove, the creator of positionless marketing.
and number one player engagement solution for sports betting and iGaming operators. I'm Charlie Horner and to discuss all of this and more is Ted Ormclay, editor of SBC News. And we had to rope in some specialist expert insights. So I'm delighted to welcome back Jamie Nettleton, partner at Addison's and a member of IMGL back onto the show. Jamie, thanks for coming back on. How are you?
Jamie Nettleton (00:59.264)
I'm very well, Charlie. Delighted to be back.
In-Person (01:02.67)
fantastic. Ted, how are you? Yeah, very pleased to be back in the studio with Jamie. I'm looking forward to hearing some of his insights on this, obviously what's quite a landmark piece of legislation over in Australia. Yeah, we had Jamie on the show back in April and it sort of previewed what we were going to talk about today. The gambling reform bill 2026 has been filed.
Jamie, how wide ranging is it and how much would it shake up the Australian landscape if it was implemented at the end?
Jamie Nettleton (01:36.802)
Well, probably Midgie say I think it will be implemented, at least to the extent to which it's been published, and it's going to have very considerable ramifications on the way in which the licensed operators in Australia currently do business.
In-Person (01:58.446)
Fantastic. Could you just outline some of the measures that are in the bill, some of the headline measures that would shake up the regulation in Australia?
Jamie Nettleton (02:09.11)
The c I I think the the initial response to the bill wasn't completely positive from the perspective of the people who want to see change or the introduction in you know greater controls in respect of the conduct of online betting in Australia. but the more you get into it, the more the greater the restrictions which are in place. But they range from you know placing very good
considerable restrictions on the manner on the manner in which betting operators can promote their services within Australia. and you know a lot of the expansion that occurs as a result of the opening up of a market, which we saw in Australia initially and which you now see in the US, is going to be closed considerably with very limited amounts of advertising which will take place. And that's undoubtedly
the largest range of controls which are being brought in by the bill. There are a number of ancillary restrictions which will you know ex which will really implement those wagering advertising controls. But particularly in respect of intermediaries, also steps be taken to further prevent on offshore operators from providing services into Australia. And there are some other additional
restrictions which we can talk about as well as well. Some of which will impact the waging operators, some of which will impact other aspects of the online gambling market in Australia.
In-Person (03:47.918)
We sort of guessed that advertising would be the big sort of target of any reform bill that came through and that has appeared to be the case and there's plenty of different measures involved in this bill that would impact the way that Australian operators can advertise. There's a notable persons ban, there's a promotion of betting odds ban, uniforms and sports venues ban, wagering representatives ban, harmful material ban, live sport ban.
Shame there's a lot of banning going on, isn't there?
Jamie Nettleton (04:21.58)
There there's not much that there's not much spe th that will be permitted if you just read the word ban. And absolutely that was the recommendation of the Murphy report which came out three years ago, that all wagering advertising should be banned. And immediately you can see from the bill, we're talking about a number of you know, individual bands. All individual bands do not necessarily mean a whole, so there will still be some wagering advertising that's gotta be permitted.
But it's going be subject to fairly stringent guardrails. So I think that's the first point to note. There isn't a total ban. That's what was called for, and that's what was expected by a lot of a lot of the Australian public, Australian politicians. And we're still going to go through the final process of the bill going through Parliament. Let's see what happens next month when it goes through Parliament.
In-Person (05:15.576)
Sure, and Ted, I want to bring you in now because we're seeing gambling, advertising reforms and more stringent regulations coming in across global markets. How would you assess the way that Australia is looking to tackle the marketing problem compared to some other jurisdictions in say Latin America or Europe, for instance? Well, marketing in general, think, is always a, it's a cause that's often seized on quite quickly by
like gambling reform advocacy groups and members of the public who want to see changes in gambling policy, gambling legislation. I think the simple reason for that is obviously it's just about the visibility of the industry, particularly the connection to sports, the engagement of certain communities, visibility to younger people and so on. That's a common trend we're seeing across lots of different mature regulated markets from over here in the UK to over in Australia via the Netherlands, France, Brazil.
various different countries. And yeah, as Jamie said, this was a total ban on gambling advertising was one of the big recommendations of the Murphy Report a few years ago. It's been one of the ones that, from what I've seen at least, advocates for gambling reform in Australia have been very, very vocal in calling for. It was one of the ones that was seized on the most. As I say, not particularly surprising.
And yeah, obviously the government is now following through with some of this. As Jamie said, it's not a total ban. It's just a lot of different restrictions. But yeah, from a total complete ban on it. But yeah, not massively surprising when you look at how much conversation has been around it and when you look at what's been going on in a lot of other markets. I have also found it quite interesting, quite a big focus on like influencers and this idea of notable persons.
Again, that's something we're seeing in Europe, for example, in the Netherlands in 2023, there was the ban on what they call role models in advertising, so celebrities, sports people, big social media personalities. We have a similar kind of standard in the UK that's enforced by the Advertising Standards Authority about making sure that individuals who don't have a strong appeal to young people.
In-Person (07:35.732)
are not featured in advertising so that's often professional footballers and so on again big name social media personalities. Yeah I've just found it quite interesting the inclusion of that in Australia's new legislation and I guess as well how that kind of follows on from the the under 16 social media ban we've seen in Australia which is also now being copied in the UK.
I think it is very indicative of the significance of social media and the marketing on that to the gambling industry and various industries, I guess, these days. Yeah, I'm fascinated by the notable person's measure that we've seen in multiple markets because it appears to me that that is very subjective and perhaps deliberately ambiguous. Jamie...
Is there any indication of when somebody becomes notable? Is there a threshold that you can pass or is it taken on an ad hoc basis in terms of who is allowed to be involved in advertising and who's not?
Jamie Nettleton (08:39.66)
Well, Charlie, it's a it's very unclear from the face of the legislation and indeed what is suggested is that the regulator will issue guidelines to further clarify it. That's not particularly helpful when you think the law's gonna come into force on one January. How can you possibly plan a marketing campaign for next year? But what is absolutely clear, it goes well beyond, you know, the famous footballers. It goes it goes well beyond other celebrities or influences that as they know
to people who may you know what happens to someone who is may not be known and becomes known? it's a it's a very interesting question. We've got no real clarity, but I think there's a couple of points to mention here. The restrictions actually are not on the notable persons themselves. It's on the wagering operators entering into agreements with the notable persons. So they can't have an agreement and can't put into practice any form of arrangement. Now that sounds
pretty clear, subject to what a vagueness that we just talked about, except for one thing. And it's one thing in respect of a lot of the advertising restrictions. And this maybe differ from certain markets in which you know you are you know making comments from time to time and that is the so-called the racing exemption. This does not apply to notable persons associated with racing content and where it's on a channel which is essentially
yeah, almost exclusively related to racing. So racing's fine in respect of wagering content, and that's partly because of the historic relationship in Australia between betting and racing. Put another way, racing's almost d dependent on wagering for a lot of their activities. So you've got all these exceptions relating to wagering. So how do you plan for that? Yeah, who are the actual celebrities that you associate with racing for racing content?
Is it a footballer that you actually have made con make make content? It's a there's a lot of questions which would still need to be asked, but what they really focus on, of course, are the racing commentators, the jockeys and that sort of thing. f for that. Let me go back to one point that Ted mentioned in a sort of it it's it's come up. Australia was the world leader in respect to the social media ban in respect of under sixteen.
Jamie Nettleton (11:03.564)
But once again, Australia's going to be a world leader in respect to the controls in respect of social media. Now, not only do we have this ban, yes, it's for 18 rather than 16 year olds, but there's a what is now referred to as a triple lock feature. And what that really means is that anyone who may be able to access some form of betting advertising can only do so if they've gone through this triple lock. They need to have an account with a relevant
app or whatever the it might be relevant channel so they've got to have a an account there has to be verification that they're over 18 and they have to have and this is how it's drafted at the moment the bit the ability to opt out and provided you tick all three of those boxes you're okay and you're okay not just in respect to the relevant social media but also in respect the advertiser that you're taking steps to make sure those features are in place so
Watch let's see how this gets through Parliament. Yeah, it it it will certainly get I think be implemented as it stands, despite considerable objections coming from social media. But that's also because it's very unclear. What does it really mean in practice? Can it be implemented in practice? These sort of features are not something which you can create the technology for overnight. And maybe you've seen it in other countries, you know, the difficulties they're having coming to terms with the
Yeah, the social media ban for under sixteen. But imagine if you had these additional features which are now being implemented in respect of online content.
In-Person (12:41.934)
It's it seems to me that the ambiguity and the the sort of the the measures they're not quite a full ban, but they're still very stringent. And and that leaves, you know, uncertainty for operators. It it probably an annoys the the reformists who who would like the bill to go further and and it seems to me there's a situation where nobody's happy. but the the one of the big results from this could be that the illegal sector
grows because they can freely market a as as they wish. And with that, we'll take a quick break and we'll talk about some of the measures to fight the illegal gambling sector. So John is after the break. Just a quick second please.
BREAK
Welcome back to iGaming Daily. We're talking about the gambling reform bill twenty twenty six in Australia. Jamie, I said before the break that some of these stringent measures could allow the black market, the illegal sector to grow, to become more prominent in Australia. That's what we see in other markets around the world. but thankfully, you know, the the the authors of the bill have been one step ahead.
And they've put some measures in around fighting the illegal sector. what what are the main targets of this measure measure and and what powers might authorities get to to fight illegal operators?
Jamie Nettleton (15:40.898)
Well, at at the end of the end of the day the target's the illegal operators. but what's going to happen with the bill is they're putting in additional restrictions on the so called intermediaries. The the the people who are actually facilitating overseas operators essentially being able to take bets. And it's not just bets, essentially any form of online gambling from Australians. And so
in one sense you'd say, well it's not actually targeting the online operators directed after all. Those restrictions are already in place. You know, they've just taken steps against influencers. So it's now taking steps against the financial institutions. And I think this is something that will be looked at very closely. I don't think it's something that's been understood really by you know the the PSPs, the banks, etcetera, about
what measures they're going to put in place. And again, let's just talk about it. Yeah, the fact is that you know they put must put in measures to essentially enable payments to be made to offshore gambling operators for the purposes of transactions. But there's a defense. If you do if you go too far or block otherwise valid transactions, you've got a defense. Now that seems rather odd, so it's okay that you can go ahead and put in
some form of blanket ban, but are they really likely to? so you go back to the concept and this started when I first became involved in the regulation online gaming. Now you use other forms of payments to be made to intermediaries overseas where payments could be made for multiple you know multiple e-commerce sites as they then were whether it's to buy a shirt, whether it's to buy some form of online account. Now it could be crypto, you name it, what you could buy
online. Now, are those payments actually going to be blocked in order to block Australians making payments to the overseas gambling operators for purpose of transactions? I can understand what they're seeking to do because there was criticism made in respect of banks, financial institutions not taking sufficient steps to block payments being made. But this seems very much like a question it's got restrictions, but is it really going to work? And that's
Jamie Nettleton (18:04.11)
so we'll see. That goes back to your initial question, Charlie. Yeah, how effective are these measures going to be? There's a lot of belief that they're going to work, but we'll have to see how they work in practice. it's not just financial institutions, of course. There are other intermediaries who are gonna be the subject of focus by our regulator.
In-Person (18:23.888)
Yeah, th I think it's you know, it's the regulation is only good as good as the the enforcement that goes with it, I guess. And it yeah, it w remains to be seen whether the authorities will have the powers to to to actually enforce it properly. d Ted, we we've seen it in other markets as well. It it's something that we're talking a lot about in the UK with you know, the illegal gambling task force has said that it's going after payment service providers, advertising partners, things like that to to help
stem the black market, but do you think the black market, the illegal market, is is actually beatable? Or is or is there a risk that we we end up in a bit of a whack-a-mole situation where you you cut cut off a domain and another site pops up or one payment provider goes down and another one pops up? Do you think it's quite difficult to actually sort of stamp out this this activity? in short, yes.
I'd say so yes, extreme extremely difficult. I mean, I think you could argue we're all we've already f found ourselves in a a bit of a whack-a-mole situation across in various jurisdictions really. I mean, you know, if we just if we just look at Australia, obviously the topic of conversation right now on this podcast, the the ACMA, which correct me if I'm wrong, Jamie, I believe is essentially like the de facto national gambling regulator in Australia. we we regularly see updates from the ACMA of
listing the the number of offshore websites that have been blocked, w you know where domains have been blocked and so on. And yet we're you know, we're constantly getting those updates, which just shows you how much I guess of a hydra the offshore black market is, not just to Australia but to various markets as well. You'll often see some of the same names coming up on there because once they're blocked, they'll just find another domain name, get back in business and yeah, and and and and the they're back making money.
so you could already argue we're kind of in a bit of a whack-a-mole situation. I think maybe the what I mean, Jamie's hit the nail on the head there really with the discussion of the payments side of things. I think what the what the Australian government are doing here is is they're on the right track with targeting the payments. That is really the the number one essential thing I think you should be going after if you want to shut down the the offshore market, the black shore but the black market sites. because
In-Person (20:45.52)
Yeah, if if you can stop people from making the payments to them, then that's it. You've cut off their source of revenue. But as Jamie said, that's a lot trickier, you know, it's it's a lot easier said than done. There's the intermediaries involved, there's the there's the element of crypto that Jamie mentioned as well, which is obviously a a a huge element of the the modern gambling black market, the online gambling black market.
And you know, yeah, how do you how do you address that with the the the issues around traceability and and an anonymity and all and and everything. So you know, I think yeah, they're on the right track. Th that it's definitely a good way of getting the upper hand in the game of whack-a-mole, but the whack-a-mole game will continue. I think. it's just about
Jamie Nettleton (21:29.366)
And I look and I think it I I think absolutely it's head because what's gotta happen is yeah, they've already got a list of the URLs if you like and the continuously attitude list. You see that from the actual statements which come out from the ACMA. That's gotta be presented to a financial institution. These are the these are the sites, watch out if there's any payment going to any of these operators on these particular sites. Can you really keep up? Yeah, it's I'm not s
I think initially you know, there there will be some impact, but I think it's a matter of the PSP's institutions actually having in place the technology to stop these payments being made. And again, that's something which you know it will take some time I think to design and put in place and particularly to ensure it's you know, approaching being effective.
In-Person (22:23.676)
Yeah, y y I I think you need the technology, you need the resources to to make it happen. And I think it's it's particularly important that governments and regulators put the effort and resources into sort of tackling the the illegal sector, particularly if governments are adamant on introducing further regulation and more stringent measures f for the regulated sector, because th the the ultimate pro by product is that the the illegal sector does grow.
Talking of industry reaction, Jamie, what have we heard any reaction from licensed operators or or sort of trade bodies, et cetera, from from what they think about this bill?
Jamie Nettleton (23:04.95)
Look, I I think when when it first came out they indicate they were blindsided to a degree 'cause there's a number of restrictions in here which they which sort of were the first time that they'd sort of been raised in conversations. Obviously time's gone on now there's a degree of familiarity with it. but I at the end of the day, the real question will be, you know, to what extent is there a benefit for having a licence in Australia?
which enables you to promote your services. One that is one of the benefits, you can promote your services. Can you really now promote your services effectively? I think the the long term result of this, particularly because of the added level of compliance which will come into place as a result of this, is there'll be greater consolidation, there'll be lesser and lesser operators and a much greater barrier to entry in respect of others. so you know I don't think they're going to be
you know, diminished in respect of their power, but number perhaps there will be. So I think there there are quite a number of comments have been made. There are submissions which are which were made. Some have been heard but most of them have been will just be implemented in the bill and the wagering operators will essentially have to cop them on the chin.
In-Person (24:26.184)
And then on the on the other side of the debate, I think proponents of the Murphy report well, you mentioned it before, Jamie, that they're not entirely satisfied, but is there any chance that this ends up being amended and goes further in terms of the the restrictions it places on on licensed operators?
Jamie Nettleton (24:43.98)
That's a that's a very good question, Charlie. And I probably need to have a a group of lobbyists with me to sort of give give the comments in respect to that. but you know recommendation sixteen of the Murphy report was very clear. Total ban on advertising, total ban on inducements. It's done nothing on inducements, and it's not a total ban on advertising. So already in respect of some of the submissions to the Senate inquiry.
In-Person (24:52.317)
Ha ha.
Jamie Nettleton (25:13.9)
They're picking up those points. That was the initial feedback by a lot of commentators, a lot of politicians, that the government did not go far enough. and yeah, it's it's a changing time for essentially a government in dealing with these issues and that'll be the subject of extensive debate in the parliament next month. and yeah, it's it's difficult to predict how this may end up. we'll we'll have to wait to see.
In-Person (25:44.444)
and and just finally y y you mentioned do you think that it will go through in some form, but it just depends on what what form that takes in terms of how far it goes further and that's subject to to inquiry.
Jamie Nettleton (25:56.342)
Look again, you know, if you if I were perhaps betting on the outcome of this bill going through, I think it's far greater than even, in in some way, but there's been comments comments made that no is this something which we just as the minority parties object to the bill going through until it's made more more more draconian in the restrictions. At the end of the day I think there's gonna be a that's unlikely.
but that's w what what I do I really do anticipate it will become law this year and will and a lot of the restrictions will come into force on one January next year.
In-Person (26:36.282)
Okay, we'll we'll definitely keep an eye out for that and monitor all the all the progress of of that bill and and and the implications of it when when it does become law. But for now, Jamie, thanks ever so much for joining us once again. Really appreciate your insights and and your time. Ted, thanks ever so much for joining me as well. It's great to have your views as well. Thanks to Optimove for supporting the show and to our listeners, thanks for tuning in to today's episode of iGaming Daily.
Come back tomorrow to keep up to date with all the latest global gambling news.