Action on interactive gambling: January to March 2019

 80 enquiries and complaints received and assessed

 19 investigations completed involving 35 distinct gambling sites

 44 breaches of the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 (IGA) found

 1 formal warning issued

Enquiries and complaints

Of the 80 enquiries and complaints received, 62 (78%) were valid complaints that could be investigated under the IGA.

You can make a complaint to the ACMA if you believe that a prohibited interactive gambling service or an unlicensed regulated interactive gambling service is being provided to Australian customers or advertised in Australia.

Investigations

We may investigate interactive gambling matters on our own initiative or where a valid complaint is made.

An investigation may look at a number of sites and include findings on a number of matters. For example, in a single investigation we might consider if a service is a prohibited interactive gambling service and also whether an advertisement for the service was published in Australia.

In this period, 19 investigations were completed, which considered a total of 35 distinct URLs.

One or more breaches of the IGA were found in 19 investigations. There were 44 separate findings of breaches:

• 32 related to providing a prohibited interactive gambling service to Australian customers
• six related to providing an unlicensed regulated interactive gambling service to Australian customers
• six related to advertising a prohibited or unlicensed regulated interactive gambling service in Australia.

Investigation breaches by type 

The ACMA does not publish the names of entities involved in investigations.

Enforcement actions

We have a range of powers to deal effectively with breaches, including the power to:

• issue formal warnings
• issue infringement notices
• apply to the Federal Court or Federal Circuit Court for civil penalty orders and/or injunctions
• refer a matter to the Australian Federal Police for investigation, or to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, in connection with criminal offence provisions.

In addition, we can:

• notify relevant international licensing authorities if an operator is in breach of Australian law
• refer directors/principals of offending operators to border protection agencies for inclusion on the travel Movement Alert List
• report URLs to family-friendly filter providers.

Enforcement action undertaken in this quarter

Stakeholder engagement

We continue to engage with international regulators, national regulators, licensing authorities, service providers, sporting and racing bodies, and other federal government agencies to raise awareness of the IGA and promote compliance.