Australia Passes Gambling Ad Opt-Out Register Into Law
Australia's parliament passed the Interactive Gambling Amendment (Gambling Reform) Bill 2026 on August 19, 2026, clearing the way for a national register that will let any Australian opt out of wagering advertising on every online platform at once.
It is the biggest shake-up yet for how Australian betting sites can market to customers. The bill passed the House of Representatives on August 18 and the Senate the following day, after the government struck a deal with the Coalition to add the register in exchange for its support.
What The Register Does
The Wagering Advertising Opt-out Register will work as a single point of contact rather than the account-by-account opt-outs currently offered by individual platforms. The Australian Labor Party said the register will give people "a one-stop shop to opt out of seeing wagering advertising on online platforms" across streaming services, social media, banner ads and podcasts.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority will design, build and enforce the scheme, following the same funding model used for BetStop, the National Self-Exclusion Register.
Two companion bills, the National Self-Exclusion Register (Cost Recovery Levy) Bill 2026 and the Interactive Gambling (Cost Recovery Levy) Bill 2026, also passed alongside the main reform and will recover the register's setup and running costs from licensed wagering operators through an industry levy.
New Rules From January 1
Ahead of the register's rollout, a separate set of restrictions takes effect from January 1, 2027. Online platforms will only be allowed to show wagering ads to users who are logged into an account, verified as being over 18, and given the option to opt out on that platform, a "triple lock" the government first proposed in its original package announced by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on April 2, 2026.
The same date brings a limit of three wagering ads per hour on broadcast television between 5am and 8.30pm, a ban on wagering ads during live sport broadcasts in that window, and a ban on wagering ads on radio during school drop-off and pick-up times.
Athletes, celebrities and influencers will no longer be allowed to promote wagering products, and gambling ads will be banned from sports venues and players' and officials' uniforms.
Direct marketing of inducements will also be prohibited for 14 days after a customer signs up with a wagering company, for three months after someone deregisters from BetStop, and permanently for anyone identified as at risk of gambling harm.
Penalties For Non-Compliance
Serving a wagering ad to someone who has opted out of the register carries a maximum civil penalty of 1,000 penalty units for an individual and 5,000 penalty units for a corporation.
At the current Commonwealth penalty unit value of $364, set under the Crimes (Amount of a Penalty Unit) Instrument that took effect on July 1, 2026, that equates to fines of up to $364,000 for individuals and $1.82m for corporations.
ACMA also gains new powers to direct banks and payment systems to block transactions to illegal offshore gambling operators, part of a broader push in the bill to cut off unlicensed sites from the Australian market.
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Industry Pushes Back On Timeline
Responsible Wagering Australia, the trade body for bet365, Betfair, Sportsbet, Unibet and other licensed operators, objected to the register on delivery grounds rather than the principle behind it.
Chief executive Kai Cantwell said in a statement that "this new global opt-out system, akin to BetStop, is proposed to be designed, developed and implemented in less than four months," adding that "BetStop, which is a simpler concept, took more than four years from inception to implementation."
Cantwell also argued the changes will do little to address the illegal offshore market, which he said "does not pay tax in Australia, employs no Australians, and operates outside the reach of any opt-out or ad-stop mechanism."
Communications Minister Anika Wells has said ACMA will spend the next 12 months building the register, comparing it to the government's earlier delivery of BetStop.
ACMA will now begin the design and consultation work needed to open the register, while online platforms have until January 1, 2027 to put the triple lock in place or stop showing wagering ads in Australia altogether.
Bettors comparing operators through independent betting site reviews should expect to see fewer wagering ads across their usual apps and streams well before the register itself goes live, as platforms move early to avoid the new penalties.
