Interactive Gambling Amendment (Gambling Reform) Bill 2026, National Self-exclusion Register (Cost Recovery Levy) Amendment Bill 2026, Interactive Gambling (Cost Recovery Levy) Bill 2026
Senator GALLAGHER (Australian Capital Territory—Minister for Finance, Minister for the Public Service, Minister for Women, Minister for Government Services and Manager of Government Business in the Senate) (10:11): I table a revised explanatory memorandum relating to the Interactive Gambling Amendment (Gambling Reform) Bill 2026, and I move: That these bills be now read a second time.
I seek leave to have the second reading speeches incorporated in Hansard. Leave granted. The speech es read as follows— INTERACTIVE GAMBLING AMENDMENT (GAMBLING REFORM) BILL 2026 This Bill delivers a significant package of reforms to reduce gambling harm in Australia.
When the Government introduced this legislation in the House of Representatives, it did so with three clear objectives: to reduce children's exposure to gambling advertising, reduce the targeting and saturation of wagering advertising, and strengthen protections to reduce gambling-related harm. The Bill has since been considered through the Senate inquiry process and by the House of Representatives.
The government thanks the Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee, as well as stakeholders, regulators, industry participants, public health experts, community organisations and people with lived experience of gambling harm who contributed to that inquiry and to the broader development of this Bill. In parallel, our National Conference unanimously backed these reforms and supported considering further measures to tackle the harm caused by inducements.
We have also worked constructively to identify sensible improvements that would strengthen the legislation without undermining its practical operation. The Albanese Labor Government has achieved bipartisan agreement with the Coalition to progress these reforms. On behalf of the Government, Minister for Communications and Minister for Sport, I thank the Coalition and Senator Henderson for their support to see these reforms become law.
As a result of this bipartisan agreement, the Bill has been amended to build on the reforms originally introduced by the government in the House of Representatives. These amendments tighten advertising protections, improve consistency across platforms, establish a Wagering Advertising Opt-out Register, and introduce restrictions on the direct marketing of predatory inducements to vulnerable Australians.
Together, these amendments strengthen the Bill and provide Australians with greater protection from online gambling harm. The Bill contains a comprehensive suite of reforms to address the proliferation of wagering advertising across television, radio, sport and online. Australians are seeing too much gambling advertising.
The Bill introduces significant restrictions on wagering advertising during live sporting broadcasts, limits the volume of wagering advertising that may be shown during certain periods, restricts the broadcasting of odds, and increases controls on harmful and misleading advertising content. These measures have been strengthened through amendments that extend protections for children's programs to broadcasting video on demand and subscription video on demand services and ensure protections for live sporting content apply consistently across both broadcasting and online platforms.
Collectively, these reforms help ensure children and young people are not continually exposed to gambling advertising simply because they are watching sport or other entertainment and apply it across all platforms. Australians should be able to watch and participate in sport without gambling being a normalised part of that experience. The Bill restricts gambling advertising during sporting events and prohibits gambling advertising on sporting uniforms and at sporting venues.
The reforms recognise that Australians increasingly consume content online and that protections need to apply wherever people are watching, listening and engaging. Under the triple-lock mechanism, wagering advertising may only be provided where an individual is logged into an account, their age has been verified as over 18, and they have access to an opt-out mechanism, which must be prominently displayed.
The Bill, as amended, will make it easier to opt-out across multiple accounts through the establishment of a Wagering Advertising Opt-out Register. The Wagering Advertising Opt-out Register will provide Australians with a 'one stop shop' to opt out of receiving wagering advertising across online content services that are implementing the triple-lock system. Put simply, Australians who do not wish to receive wagering advertising online will have a practical and effective way to avoid it.
The costs of administering, operating and enforcing the Register, should they be needed, will also be recoverable through a levy imposed on licensed interactive wagering service providers. The Bill has also been strengthened through the introduction of new wagering harm reduction measures for licensed interactive wagering service providers. These measures recognise that gambling harm can arise not only from advertising, but also from practices that encourage continued or increased wagering activity.
The amendments introduce restrictions on the direct marketing of inducements to vulnerable customer cohorts, including people who have recently opened an account, individuals who have recently deregistered from BetStop, and customers identified as being at risk of gambling-related harm. The reforms also prohibit wagering providers from offering staff or affiliates commissions or similar payments linked to a customer's gambling activity, helping remove incentives for staff to push customers to increase gambling participation or expenditure.
Australians should not be exposed to illegal gambling services that operate outside Australia's laws and outside Australia's consumer protections. The Bill further strengthens Australia's ability to disrupt illegal offshore gambling operators. It improves ACMA's enforcement capabilities, expands cooperation with financial institutions and digital services, and supports more effective action against unlawful gambling providers.
Amendments made to the Bill enhance the framework to help address the publication of illegal wagering advertising online. The Bill also enhances BetStop—the National Self-Exclusion Register, by implementing recommendations from the recent statutory review and ensuring the framework remains effective as technologies and marketing practices evolve. In addition, the Bill addresses emerging products that have the potential to cause significant consumer harm.
It prohibits online keno products, prohibits foreign-matched lotteries, and addresses lottery-style schemes operating under trade promotion arrangements that may mislead consumers or undermine legitimate lottery operators and charitable fundraising activities. The package of measures in this Bill will reduce exposure to wagering advertising, provide Australians with greater control over the advertising they receive, increases protections for people experiencing gambling harm, improve the integrity of Australia's gambling regulatory framework, and support a safer online wagering environment.
This Bill is a significant step forward in tackling online gambling harm and protecting vulnerable Australia. NATIONAL SELF-EXCLUSION REGISTER (COST RECOVERY LEVY) AMENDMENT BILL 2026 The recent Statutory Review of BetStop—the National Self-exclusion Register, tabled in February 2026, found only 1 in 4 people are aware that BetStop exists. And among people who placed a bet in the last 12 months, it was still only 1 in 3.
We need to make sure every Australian knows about this vital service. We also need to place the onus on gambling companies, not taxpayers, to fund this work. The Interactive Gambling Amendment (Gambling Reform) Bill 2026 also includes a number of other provisions to strengthen the operation of BetStop.
This Bill will expand the cost-recovery framework to ensure it covers the full range of activities that ACMA and the Department undertake to ensure the effectiveness of the register, including promotion and awareness raising activities INTERACTIVE GAMBLING (COST RECOVERY LEVY) BILL 2026 This Bill is a companion to the Interactive Gambling Amendment (Gambling Reform} Bill 2026, which is expected to introduce new restrictions on inducement-based marketing and establish the Wagering Advertising Opt-out Register.
This Bill ensures that the costs of administering, operating and enforcing those reforms, should they be needed, can be recovered from the wagering industry. Government has listened carefully to the evidence presented during the recent Senate inquiry and through ongoing stakeholder engagement. We are particularly concerned by evidence about wagering inducements and the role these practices can play in encouraging gambling and exacerbating gambling-related harm.
It is expected that the Government's reforms will respond to these concerns by introducing new restrictions on inducement-based marketing and establishing the Wagering Advertising Opt-out Register, which will provide Australians with a 'one-stop shop' to opt out of seeing wagering advertising on online platforms. The Australian Communications and Media Authority will be responsible for implementing and enforcing these reforms, including monitoring compliance with the new restrictions and establishing and administering the Opt-out Register.
This Bill enables the ACMA to recover the costs of those activities through a levy imposed on licensed interactive wagering service providers. It is appropriate that the wagering industry, rather than taxpayers, bears the costs of regulating these activities. The levy established by this Bill is intended solely to recover the costs associated with administering, operating and enforcing these reforms.