Bookmakers are flouting NSW’s gambling laws by promoting free betting credits and other inducements to customers, with the gambling watchdog bringing charges against 14 different bookies for illegal advertisements so far this year.
SportsBet, the latest operator to be caught, was last week convicted in Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court on five counts of publishing illegal advertisements online and spamming a customer with unwanted marketing.
Sportsbet has been convicted of breaking NSW gambling ad laws for the third time. Credit:Getty Images
The Betting and Racing Act bans bookies from offering any “inducement” to gamble or open a betting account, which can take the form of bonus bets, credits or improved odds.
However, Liquor & Gaming NSW compliance director Marcel Savary said some bookmakers were not taking the state’s laws seriously. The regulator has brought 119 charges of breaching advertising laws against 14 different bookmakers so far this year – an increase from 31 counts brought against seven operators last year.
“Liquor & Gaming NSW consistently expresses concerns to industry about gambling advertising and will continue to monitor compliance with these laws and take strong action for serious and blatant offending,” Mr Savary said.
Sportsbet was fined $135,000 last Friday after it pleaded guilty to five charges of breaching NSW gambling advertising laws between October 2020 and March 2021.
The country’s biggest online bookmaker had run a promotion on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter offering customers the chance to win $10,000 in “bonus bets”. It also pleaded guilty of spamming a customer with ads by email even after he had unsubscribed from its promotional material.
It’s the third time Sportsbet has been convicted, with the group being fined $22,000 for advertising law breaches in March this year. On each occasion its has blamed the breaches on inadvertence or human error.
A Sportsbet spokesman said that while the court accepted it had not deliberately broken the law, “we are nonetheless disappointed to have fallen short of our obligations”.
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