Australia

Australia is one of the largest gambling markets with a highly engaged population.

The first online casinos appeared in the 90s with the development of the Internet. And already in 2001 there was a legislative act IGA, regulating online gambling. It should be understood that Australia was and remains a strictly regulated market, where there is an active fight against illegal operators.

Advertising of online casinos is banned in Australia. Both offshore brand sites, affiliate sites and casino mirrors are blocked.

Player profile

• Men: 72%
• Women: 28%
• Average age (m): 44
• Average age (w): 40
• Main activity of players: after 19 hours local time.
• Most active days of the week: Friday, Saturday.

Devices

• Mobile phones: 81%
• Desktop: 17%
• Tablets: 2%

Other player characteristics

Most people in Australia get paid at the end of the month (29-31). These are the days of peak activity and it makes sense to give players an extra bonus to incentivise them to come to your casino.

From an interesting observation: Australians often spend family holidays away from home. On such days, the activity drops significantly.

Separately, it can be noted that recently there has been an increase in the tendency to play in cryptocurrency. This is due to the card blocking that players sometimes face.

Australia is a very profitable market, but it is worth remembering the risks.

Firstly, the projects of illegal operators are regularly blocked, so you should have a mirror in reserve to guide players to.

Secondly, players' credit cards are periodically blocked, so players often prefer alternative methods to top up. Without such methods, getting onto a given geo will be problematic.

Also, it is worth remembering the particularly high competition in the market, so the market entry should be carefully prepared in terms of product (welcome offer, regular offers, games, payment methods, retention mechanics, etc.).

Another attempt to stop the illegal iGaming market

Only sports betting is legal in Australia, and the large gambling audience lacks diversity in the iGaming industry. Therefore, it can be argued that thorough measures from the authorities are indeed detrimental to licensed betting operators and significantly reduce the revenues of the sector as a whole.

Nevertheless, despite the potential for growth in the country's legal gambling sector, all these opportunities are now effectively in the hands of the black market. We tell you what other reforms await licensed operators in this fight for survival, and provide data on the scale of the illegal iGaming industry in Australia.

Gambling adverts are an abode of evil for the public

There is an ongoing debate about gambling advertising regulations in the country. It started back in 2023 when Australian politician Peta Murphy proposed 31 recommendations to normalise gambling in the Australian community.

These included a phased three-year plan to eliminate all forms of gambling advertising. At this point, the recommendations are still under discussion, but one of the regulations for this area has been highlighted for quicker consideration.

The Australian government has launched an initiative that will restrict gambling advertising in stadiums during major sporting events.

The purpose of the restriction is to reduce the impact of advertising on young audiences, as it makes young people perceive betting as an integral part of sports culture. It is known that about 46 per cent of Australians between the ages of 18 and 24 participate in online betting.

In this situation, bookmakers may suffer significant losses, as this type of advertising has noticeably contributed to their recognisability in the media space.

New player identification requirements for betting operators

The tightening of the customer identification procedure (KYC) was introduced back in September 2023. Therefore, operators had one year to prepare for the stricter rules.

Companies are now prohibited from allowing users to gamble until they have verified that the customer is who they say they are.

This implies that companies are required to implement robust identity verification systems and procedures to quickly and accurately verify the documents submitted to avoid any criminal elements and to recognise individuals on the National Self-Exclusion Register.

BetStop performance

Over 30k people in Australia have joined the BetStop National Self-Exclusion Programme since its launch in August last year.

The majority of registered players (15k) are young adults under the age of 30. Consumers aged between 31 and 40 were the next group, accounting for 30 per cent of all registrations. They were followed by the 41 to 50 age group with 12% and another group from 51 to 60 with 6%.

As for the terms for which people voluntarily gave up gambling, about 12 thousand Australians did it for life. The same number of people chose the term from three months to two years.

It is known that 7.3 thousand people completed the self-exclusion process or cancelled it early. However, there is no guarantee that the number of former self-excluded people will not decide to ‘snap’ and turn to gambling platforms.

BetStop's effectiveness is directly related to the volume of the black market, which exceeds the scale of legal activity in the country, which is limited solely to sports betting.

This means that Australians who are members of the national self-exclusion programme can visit the vast number of active offshore sites in the country without any restrictions, thus exacerbating their addiction to gambling on illegal platforms.

Thus, the lack of diversity in Australia's gambling industry, coupled with the growing number of illegal operators, calls into question the effectiveness of the government's initiatives aimed primarily at protecting young people.

What are the implications for the industry?

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare is confident that ‘gambling is a serious public policy issue in Australia, impacting the health and wellbeing of individuals and families in a variety of ways’. As such, the country is constantly introducing new laws and standards for the sector.

The tight regulatory environment and lack of diversity in an industry where only online sports betting is allowed creates an unfavourable environment for users and makes legal operators highly uncompetitive.

Unwilling to become part of such countermeasures, players opt for more diverse illegal platforms available around the clock, despite the ASMA's continuous efforts to block them. As a result, there is a significant exodus of players offshore.

The state is suffering huge financial losses, and instead of considering legalising online casinos, the authorities continue to increase pressure on legal betting operators.

If this policy continues, Australia risks becoming a global leader in gambling losses rather than a global and promising gambling region.