Online gambling in Australia, 2026
The money, the regulator and the next change
What the Interactive Gambling Act actually bans
The Interactive Gambling Act 2001 is Commonwealth law, and in ACMA's words it “makes it illegal for gambling providers to offer some online services to people in Australia”. The banned services, as the regulator lists them:
- online casinos — pokies, blackjack, roulette, baccarat and any other casino-style game played for money over the internet;
- in-play sports betting online (a bet on a match already under way, unless placed by phone);
- sports betting services which do not hold an Australian licence;
- betting on the outcome of a lottery.
Two further rules follow. Banned services “must not be advertised in Australia”, and gambling providers “must not promote or offer credit for online betting”. The Act applies to gambling “through a website or app and via a telephone”, and it applies to the provider wherever it is based: a company in Costa Rica or Curaçao offering pokies to a person physically in Australia is doing something the Act prohibits, whatever the company's own licence says.
The advertising ban sits in Part 7A of the Act and covers all media, websites included. Since 11 June 2024 the Act has also banned credit cards, credit-linked products and digital currency as payment methods for licensed online wagering. ACMA can investigate, issue formal warnings and civil penalties, and ask internet providers to block offending websites. The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts publishes the maximum civil penalty as A$360,000 per day for individuals and A$1.8 million per day for companies; penalty units are indexed periodically.
Notice what is not on the list. The Act does not name the player, does not create an offence of using a banned service, and does not give anyone the power to fine or prosecute a person for placing a bet at an offshore casino. A 2011 federal review paper of the Act says the same: it “does not make it an offence for Australian customers to access and use prohibited interactive gambling services”.
What is legal, and under whose rules
Online gambling in Australia is legal when it is one of the services the Act permits, offered by a provider licensed to offer it. Wagering — betting on sport and racing before the event starts — is legal online through operators holding an Australian state or territory licence; ACMA publishes a register of them. Lotteries and lottery-style products are legal online through licensed operators. Casino games and pokies are legal in Australia only in licensed physical venues, under state and territory law: the casinos in each capital, and the pokies in clubs and pubs that every state except Western Australia permits. There is no licence, from any Australian government, for online pokies or online casino games, and there is no application process by which an operator could obtain one. A site describing itself as an “Australian licensed online casino” is describing something that does not exist.
What the Interactive Gambling Act allows online
Services offered to people in Australia; the banned column follows ACMA's list (read 23 October 2026), with online poker named separately
Legal with an Australian licence
- Betting on sport and racing placed before the event starts
- Lotteries bought online from a licensed operator
- Check: the operator is on ACMA's register of Australian-licensed interactive wagering providers
Banned from being offered
- Online casinos: pokies and casino games such as roulette, blackjack and baccarat
- Online poker for real money
- In-play sports betting over the internet
- Sports betting from providers without an Australian licence
- Betting on the outcome of a lottery
The Act puts the offence on operators and advertisers, not on individual players, a 2011 federal review paper of the Act says. But a player on an unlicensed site has no Australian regulator to complain to if a withdrawal is refused.
Sources: Interactive Gambling Act 2001 (Cth); ACMA, About the Interactive Gambling Act.
What Australians actually gamble on
Share of all Australian adults (not only gamblers) who spent money on each product in the 12 months before July 2022
Source: Australian Gambling Research Centre (2023), Community Attitudes Survey, online panel of 1,765 adults aged 18+, July 2022, via AIHW, Gambling in Australia (version of September 2023). Keno and bingo are one category in the survey. Eight of the 13 activities surveyed are shown; harness racing (22.5%) and novelty betting (17.2%) are left out.
What the law means for the player
Playing at an offshore casino is not an offence, a 2011 federal review paper of the Act says. That is the whole of the good news, and the rest of this section is what it costs. The Department's page on the Act says it “targets the providers of interactive gambling, not their potential or actual customers”; ACMA, in its 2021 report on online casinos that target Australians, says people who use these sites “have little or no recourse if they experience poor player treatment or their winnings have been withheld”.
You have no regulator. A dispute with an Australian-licensed bookmaker can go to the licensing authority and, for many, to an independent complaints body. A dispute with an offshore casino goes to the casino. ACMA's complaint process exists to act against the provider, not to recover your money; if a site refuses a withdrawal, nobody in Australia can compel it to pay.
The site can disappear. ACMA asks internet providers to block the domains of illegal gambling services it identifies, and has since 2019. A blocked casino usually reappears at a new address within days — the “casino-name-31” domains in our reviews are the trace of this — but your account and balance sit with the operator, not the domain, and reaching them can take a support ticket and a wait.
Your bank may say no. Card payments to offshore casinos are declined by most Australian banks under gambling merchant codes; that is a bank policy, not a legal penalty, and it is the reason PayID and crypto have replaced cards at these cashiers. How PayID reaches an offshore casino and what crypto play involves are covered separately.
The safety net does not reach you. BetStop, the National Self-Exclusion Register, lets you exclude yourself “from all Australian licensed online and phone wagering services in a single step” — ACMA's words, and the operative one is licensed. Offshore casinos are not on it and cannot be. The only limits at these sites are the ones you set in the account.
Your documents leave Australian privacy law. Identity documents sent to an offshore operator for verification are outside the Australian Privacy Act. Redact document numbers where the operator permits, and never send more than is requested.
The padlock is not a licence. HTTPS encrypts the connection, and scam sites have it too; it says nothing about whether the company behind the site will pay you. Licensed wagering in Australia has state regulators and, for some issues, ombudsman routes. Offshore casinos have, at best, the foreign licensor's complaint form and a handful of private “ADR” services whose rulings are not enforceable in Australia.
What a VPN can cost you at an offshore casino
A VPN changes the address a casino sees. It does not change whom the Act is aimed at: in ACMA's words, gambling providers that offer some online services to people in Australia. What a VPN can put at risk is your balance. In the terms of three casinos we read from an Australian IP on 11 October 2026, using one is grounds for taking money from the account:
- Ignition, clause 6.2: “the usage of a VPN, proxy or similar service that masks or manipulates the identification of your real location” is listed as improper activity, and in that case “all Account balances (including both deposits and any winnings) shall be forfeited”.
- Lucky Tiger, clause 6.3: on “using the VPN, proxy or similar service” the casino says it may “block user’s Account with forfeiting of all Account balances without prior notification”.
- Casino Rocket, clause 3.2: “Use of VPNs to bypass geographic restrictions is strictly prohibited and may lead to confiscation of winnings.”
The first two name the whole balance, deposits included; Casino Rocket names winnings. None of the three says how it detects a VPN, and we have not tested whether any of them does. On 23 October 2026 domains carrying each of the three names were on ACMA's list of blocked gambling websites. If one of them keeps a balance under such a clause, the point above applies: a dispute with an offshore casino goes to the casino.
What ACMA has done since 2017
The Act was largely unenforced against offshore operators until the Interactive Gambling Amendment Act 2017, which ACMA describes as a change “to combat groups from outside Australia that provide illegal gambling services over the internet”. Since then the regulator publishes a register of licensed wagering providers, can refer “the directors and principals of offending companies to the Australian Border Force”, issues formal warnings and infringement notices, and, from November 2019, asks internet providers to block illegal sites. Its release of 24 September 2026 counts 1,822 “illegal gambling and affiliate websites” blocked since its first blocking request in November 2019, and says “over 230 illegal services” have pulled out of the Australian market since 2017. ACMA also says “the amount of money people lost on gambling services based outside Australia has reduced”. Blocked brands routinely reappear on new domains.
From Hyde Park to the 2027 reforms
Two centuries of Australian gambling in eleven dates
- 1810First official horse race in Sydney, run in Hyde Park (October)
- 1881George Adams runs his first public Tattersall's sweep, on the Sydney Cup
- 1956NSW legalises poker machines in clubs
- 1973Australia's first legal casino: Wrest Point, Hobart
- 1999The Northern Territory licenses Lasseters Casino, Alice Springs, to run an internet casino
- 2001Interactive Gambling Act makes it illegal to offer online casino services to people in Australia
- 2017Amendment Act targets providers outside Australia; ACMA gains new enforcement tools
- 2019ACMA makes its first request to internet providers to block illegal gambling sites (November)
- 2023BetStop, the National Self-Exclusion Register, launches (21 August)
- 2024Credit cards, credit-linked products and digital currency banned for licensed online wagering (11 June)
- 2027Most reforms of the Interactive Gambling Amendment (Gambling Reform) Act 2026 commence on 1 January
Sources: 1810 — State Library of NSW and Dictionary of Sydney; 1881 — Australian Dictionary of Biography; 1956 — UTS doctoral thesis on NSW clubs (the 1956 Act itself was not read); 1973 — UTAS Companion to Tasmanian History; 1999 — NT Parliament tabled paper of 22 April 1999 and Alice Springs News, 14 April 1999; 2001–2027 — ACMA and the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts.
A site that accepts AUD, shows an Australian flag and offers a 1800 support number is not thereby authorised here. ACMA's 2021 report on online casinos describes offshore services that “target Australian customers, using Australian themes and accepting play in Australian dollars”: such signs show a service offered to people in Australia, which is what the Act prohibits, not a licence to do it.
The practical picture from the operator side is the one our reviews document. Twenty-four of the casinos we review still serve Australians; ten of them name no operating company anywhere in their terms, which is the shape a market takes when the enforcement tool is a referral to Border Force and the response is a Costa Rican company with a new domain. Which casinos are the same operator maps the families that have formed. If a site has kept your money, where to complain about an online casino sets out what ACMA, the licensing authority and your bank can and cannot do.
The 2026 reform: what starts on 1 January 2027
On 19 August 2026 Parliament passed the Interactive Gambling Amendment (Gambling Reform) Bill 2026. ACMA's summary of what it introduces, with most provisions commencing on 1 January 2027:
- restrictions on gambling advertising “on TV, radio, online and in sports venues”;
- a global opt-out register for gambling advertising;
- restrictions on direct marketing of inducements — to new account holders for their first 14 days, to anyone who has left BetStop in the last three months, and to all customers identified as at risk of gambling-related harm;
- “a ban on commissions to staff or affiliates based on customer activity” — in the Act itself (new section 62ZT) this applies to licensed interactive wagering service providers, that is, Australian-licensed bookmakers, and to the staff and third parties they pay;
- “boosting enforcement action against illegal gambling services including the ability to takedown advertisements and illegal gambling services”;
- strengthening BetStop, and measures on “harmful and emerging online lottery products”.
Several measures in the Act bear directly on casino players. Payment blocking: banks (authorised deposit-taking institutions) and payment-system participants must take reasonably practicable steps to prevent funds, including digital currency, being sent to designated services, which ACMA calls illegal gambling services; the obligation covers money going to the operator and does not require blocking winnings coming back to you. Search engines and app stores take on obligations to keep what ACMA calls illegal gambling services away from Australian users. Website blocking, a process the Government itself described as “too slow”, is streamlined. In practice, if you hold funds at an offshore casino, the change most likely to affect you is that a future deposit from an Australian bank account or card may be refused. ACMA's implementation guidance was still pending when this was checked on 17 September 2026.
Three things are worth reading out of that list. First, ACMA's summary of the reform names no offence for the player; the amendments are aimed at providers, advertisers and the people paid to promote them. Second, the takedown power is new: ACMA has asked ISPs to block sites since 2019, but the ability to take down “illegal gambling services” and their advertising directly is a different tool, and how it is used against offshore casinos will be the story of 2027. Third, the ban on activity-based commissions is written into new section 62ZT for licensed interactive wagering providers — Australian bookmakers — and does not reach the offshore casinos reviewed here or their partner programmes. What does reach sites like this one is elsewhere in the same Act and starts on 1 January 2027: new section 61AB provides that an advertisement for a prohibited service on any online content service “is taken to be published in Australia if the online content service is accessed, or is available for access, by an end-user in Australia”, the penalty for publishing one rises from 180 to 1,000 penalty units, and ACMA gains removal notices — to the site, to its hosting provider, to the person who posted — with 24 hours to comply. We have read the Act as passed and its explanatory memorandum, and we have written our disclosure to say plainly what we are paid and by whom.
“Licensed” casinos and what the licence is worth
Every offshore casino serving Australians describes itself as licensed, and the description is usually true. It is also nearly meaningless for an Australian player, because the licence is issued by a body with no jurisdiction here and, in several cases, no public complaints process at all. In the terms we read on 18–19 September 2026: ten operators on one platform cite a licence “no.0000002 issued by the Tobique Gaming Commission” and name a Costa Rican company; the Realtime Gaming family names a Curaçao licence and Alistair Solutions N.V.; Ignition names an Anjouan licence; and ten documents name no licence and no company at all. A licence from Tobique, Curaçao or Anjouan tells you that the operator exists and has paid a fee somewhere. It does not give you a regulator to write to in Australia, and it does not make the service lawful under the Act. Curaçao, Anjouan and Kahnawake are real regulatory regimes, but their conditions, complaint mechanisms and enforcement are their own, and ACMA has issued formal warnings to Curaçao licensees, among them Dama N.V. (2022 and May 2024).
The useful reading of a licence is therefore comparative: a casino that names its company, its registration number and its licence has given you something to check and someone to name; a casino that names none of them has given you a brand. That distinction, not the licence itself, is why our ranking of ten casinos is ordered the way it is.
Winnings and tax
Gambling winnings are not assessable income for an Australian who gambles as a recreation, whether the win came from a licensed bookmaker or an offshore casino, and losses are not deductible. The Australian Taxation Office treats a professional gambler differently, but the bar is a business-like operation, not frequency or size of play. One exception does bite: if the winnings arrive as cryptocurrency, the coin is property, and selling or swapping it later is a capital gains event on any change in value since you received it. Crypto winnings and the ATO sets this out.
The position rests on long-standing case law and the ATO's ruling on betting and gambling, IT 2655 (issued 17 October 1991 and still current), which sets out when a person may be regarded as carrying on a business of gambling: a high bar involving system, scale, organisation and commercial intent. Winnings held in foreign currency can also create capital-gains events when converted. None of this is personal tax advice; if you gamble at scale, speak to a registered tax agent. Gambling winnings and tax covers the detail.
Playing at an offshore casino: reducing the risk you carry
If you play at an offshore casino, the law has left the risk with you, and the only protections are the ones you check for yourself. They are the same five we apply on every review.
Five checks that stand in for the regulator you do not have
- A named operating company and licence in the terms. Search the document for “operated by”. Eleven of twenty-four documents we read fail this in the first minute.
- Written withdrawal limits and a processing commitment. Without them, “fast payouts” is marketing. Which operators commit to a clock is checked claim against clause.
- Verification completed before the first withdrawal, so that the one stage nobody commits to is already done.
- A deposit limit set in the account before the first session — and a check that it covers the crypto rail, because at some sites it does not.
- Money you can afford to lose entirely, including to the operator. A refused withdrawal at an offshore casino has no appeal.
What each game keeps per dollar
Casino games: the house edge, the share of every dollar staked the game keeps on average. Keno and lotto: the share of ticket sales not paid back as prizes. Lower is better for the player.
Roulette edges calculated from the wheel (1/37, 2/38, and 1/74 for French la partage); baccarat, craps and blackjack as published by the Wizard of Odds (blackjack: six decks, dealer stands on soft 17, double after split, blackjack pays 3:2); online pokies: 100% minus the RTP in the game's information screen, where 94–97% is an example band, not a measured average (three Pragmatic Play titles we read on 23 October 2026 show 96.01–96.52%); venue pokies from the return range Gambling Help Queensland gives for clubs and hotels; keno from the NSW keno rules (Government Gazette No 266, 12 July 2024), which send 75% of regular keno ticket sales to the prize fund and let the operator move that by up to 5 points; Saturday Lotto from the WA Lotteries Commission (Saturday Lotto) Rules 1996 (reprint as at 4 August 2006), which send 60% of ticket sales to prizes. Keno and lotto figures are for the whole game, not each ticket; other lotteries and later rule versions were not checked. The exact edge of a casino game depends on its rules and paytable.
How a real-money session runs from deposit to cash-out, clause by clause, is in real money pokies.
Account security you control: a unique password; two-factor authentication where offered; a dedicated email; a low balance rather than a large float; and prompt withdrawal of winnings rather than letting balances accumulate at an operator that may be blocked or re-domained.
If an offshore casino will not pay you
Start from ACMA's own warning: “Illegal operators let you deposit money into your account on their website or app, but if you win you can’t access your winnings.” ACMA adds that Australian regulators will not be able to help you if “the service provider withholds your winnings”, and there is no Australian ombudsman, tribunal or regulator that will order an offshore casino to pay. That absence is the single biggest practical difference between licensed wagering and offshore casino play. Then work the options in order:
- Document everything: screenshots of the balance and the withdrawal request, chat transcripts, and the terms as they stood when you played.
- Escalate in writing to the operator's complaints email, citing the specific clause you complied with.
- Complain to the licensor (Tobique Gaming Commission, the Curaçao regulator, Anjouan, Kahnawake) using its published form. Outcomes vary widely; it costs nothing.
- Report to ACMA through its interactive-gambling complaint form. ACMA will not recover your money, but the complaint contributes to enforcement against the operator.
- Chargebacks are possible for card deposits in limited cases, such as an unauthorised transaction or a service not provided. Most banks will not reverse a gambling deposit you authorised, and casinos often close the accounts of players who attempt it. Crypto deposits are irreversible.
- A public complaint on independent forums, with evidence.
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FAQ
Is online gambling legal in Australia?
Partly. Betting on sport and racing before the event starts, and lotteries, are legal online when the operator holds an Australian licence. Online casino games, online pokies, online poker and in-play sports betting over the internet cannot legally be offered to people in Australia under the Interactive Gambling Act 2001. The ban is on offering these services, not on the person who plays.
How do I check that a betting site is licensed in Australia?
Search the operator's name in ACMA's register of licensed interactive wagering providers. If the name is not there, the service is not licensed to take bets from people in Australia. No online casino will be on it: there is no Australian licence for online casino games or online pokies.
Is it illegal to play online casino games in Australia?
Not for the player, a 2011 federal review paper of the Act says. ACMA says the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 makes it illegal for gambling providers to offer some online services to people in Australia, and lists online casinos among the banned services; ACMA's summary of the 2026 amendments names no offence for the person who plays. What the player loses is regulation: no Australian body can compel an offshore casino to pay you.
Are there any legal online casinos in Australia?
No Australian government licenses online casino games or online pokies, and there is no process by which an operator could obtain such a licence. Online wagering on sport and racing before the event, and online lotteries, are legal through licensed operators. Casino games and pokies are legal only in licensed physical venues.
What changes on 1 January 2027?
Most provisions of the Interactive Gambling Amendment (Gambling Reform) Act 2026 (Act No. 72 of 2026, assented to on 26 August): advertising restrictions, an opt-out register, limits on inducements and a commission ban for Australian-licensed wagering operators, a rule that online advertising for prohibited services counts as published in Australia wherever it is hosted, removal and link-deletion notices, an obligation on banks and payment providers to block transfers to prohibited operators, a ban on online keno, and a stronger BetStop. In ACMA's summary, none of it creates a player offence.
Can ACMA block an online casino I use?
Yes. Since 2019 ACMA has asked internet providers to block the domains of illegal gambling services, and from 2027 gains a direct takedown power. A block is on the domain; your balance and any dispute about it stay with the operator.
Can I use a VPN to gamble online in Australia?
The Act is aimed at gambling providers; the risk to you sits in the casino's terms. Of the terms we read on 11 October 2026, Ignition and Lucky Tiger treat a VPN as improper activity and say the whole balance can be forfeited, and Casino Rocket says a VPN used to bypass geographic restrictions may lead to confiscation of winnings.
Do I pay tax on online casino winnings?
Not as a recreational player: winnings are not assessable and losses are not deductible. If a win is paid in cryptocurrency, the later sale of the coin is a capital gains event on any change in value since you received it.
Sources and method
Australian Communications and Media Authority, About the Interactive Gambling Act (last updated 21 August 2026), including its summary of the Interactive Gambling Amendment (Gambling Reform) Bill 2026 and the 2017 and 2019 amendments; the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 (Cth) and the Bill's Explanatory Memorandum on the Federal Register of Legislation; operator terms and conditions for 24 casinos read on 18 and 19 September 2026 from an Australian IP address, and the VPN clauses of Ignition (terms of service, clause 6.2), Lucky Tiger (clause 6.3) and Casino Rocket (clause 3.2) read from an Australian IP on 11 October 2026 (not linked: the links carry casino addresses). ACMA, Blocked gambling websites and Investigations into online gambling providers, checked 17 September 2026; ACMA, Blocked gambling websites, list read 23 October 2026, for the three VPN-clause brands; ACMA, Latest illegal online gambling websites blocked (24 September 2026, read 12 October 2026); ACMA, Online casino services targeting Australians (compliance priority 2020–21 report, November 2021, read 25 October 2026); ACMA, Protect yourself from illegal gambling operators (last updated 6 March 2025, read 25 October 2026); Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts, The Interactive Gambling Act 2001 (page read 25 October 2026 from an Australian IP; it carries no date) and Gambling Reforms 2026; Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Review of the Interactive Gambling Act 2001: call for submissions (2011), on players; Interactive Gambling Amendment (Gambling Reform) Act 2026, Bills Digest and Senate Hansard, 19 August 2026; Australian Taxation Office, Taxation Ruling IT 2655 (17 October 1991). For the figures: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Gambling in Australia (read 23 October 2026), for 2022–23 losses and the support lines; Department of Infrastructure, on the BetStop launch of 21 August 2023; Gambling Help Queensland, on the return of pokies in clubs and hotels (read 17 October 2026); the Wizard of Odds, for the baccarat, craps and blackjack edges; Australian Gambling Research Centre, Community Attitudes Survey (July 2022), as published in AIHW, Gambling in Australia (version of 6 September 2023, archived copy read 25 October 2026), for what Australians gamble on; NSW Government Gazette No 266 (12 July 2024), keno rules; Lotteries Commission (Saturday Lotto) Rules 1996 (WA), reprint as at 4 August 2006, rule 18. For the history dates (read 25 October 2026): State Library of NSW, the first Sydney races, and Dictionary of Sydney, Hyde Park Racecourse; Australian Dictionary of Biography, George Adams; UTS, thesis on NSW registered clubs; UTAS, Companion to Tasmanian History: gambling; Territory Stories (Northern Territory), Internet Gaming Operators Agreement with Lasseters Casino (tabled paper, 22 April 1999), and Alice Springs News, 14 April 1999. Each quotation is the wording of the source named beside it. This page is general information about Australian law as published by its regulator, not legal or tax advice.
Gambling is a cost, not an income; you must be 18 or over. Free, confidential support is available 24/7 on 1800 858 858 through Gambling Help Online.