Capped number of online casino licences, awarded by auction
New Zealand
A small market introducing its first online casino licences, with betting still reserved to the domestic agency.
Licensed online casino
Australia
Heavy online wagering activity, no legal online casino, and advertising rules that keep tightening.
| Product | Position | What that means |
|---|---|---|
| Online casino | Prohibited | The product cannot lawfully be offered to local customers by anyone. |
| Sports betting | Licensed | Commercial operators can be licensed to offer this product to local customers. |
| Online poker | Prohibited | The product cannot lawfully be offered to local customers by anyone. |
| Lottery | Licensed | Commercial operators can be licensed to offer this product to local customers. |
How the market works
Australia splits its regulation in an unusual way. Online casino games cannot lawfully be offered to Australian residents at all under federal law, and the federal communications authority enforces that through investigations and blocking requests. Online wagering on sport and racing is lawful and licensed at state and territory level, with a large share of corporate bookmakers licensed in the Northern Territory.
The result is a market with very high wagering participation, extensive advertising and no legal online casino sector, alongside one of the world's largest land-based gaming machine industries regulated by the states. Each state and territory applies its own point-of-consumption tax on bets placed by its residents, so a national operator deals with several tax regimes at once.
Policy attention has concentrated on advertising volume, on credit card and payment restrictions, and on the national self-exclusion register BetStop, which launched in 2023 and applies across all licensed online wagering providers.
Who regulates it
Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), based in Melbourne and operating under Interactive Gambling Act 2001. The federal body that enforces Australia's prohibition on online casino, while betting licences are issued by the states.
Licence types issued
- None: enforcement body, with betting licences issued by states and territories
Questions about Australia
Other markets in Oceania
Background reading
Legal and compliance
What a gaming licence actually covers
A licence is not a badge of quality and it is not valid everywhere. What it authorises, who it binds, and why one company often holds a dozen.
Legal and compliance
How gambling is taxed, and why the base matters
A tax on stakes and a tax on gross gaming revenue can carry the same headline number and produce completely different businesses.
Legal and compliance
How a company enters a new market
The sequence from legal assessment to launch, and the parts that routinely take longer than anyone plans for.
Legal and compliance
What grey and black markets actually mean
The industry uses three words for the legal status of a market and rarely defines them. Here is what each one means in practice.