Tabcorp fined A$15,000 for offering gambling inducement on website
New South Wales court rules operator had attempted to encourage non-Tabcorp account holders to take part in gambling activity
Tabcorp has been fined A$15,000 (£7,850) and convicted for offering a promotion on its website, contravening New South Wales regulations (NSW).
Advertising a promotion to encourage someone to participate in gambling activity is forbidden in NSW, which includes opening a betting account, persuading players to keep an account open or to refer a friend to open an account.
At Downing Centre Local Court on 22 September, it was determined that a promotion ad on Tabcorp’s website “included an inducement to participate in a gambling activity”.
A maximum penalty of A$110,000 can be applied to gambling firms and A$11,000 to individuals for publishing prohibited gambling advertising.
Jane Lin, Liquor & Gaming NSW executive director of regulatory operations, reiterated that promotions can be legally advertised to people with a gambling account as they have “consented” to view the information.
Lin said: “Tabcorp is a large corporation and it is our expectation that an operator of this scale has strong internal controls and demonstrates greater vigilance to prevent members of the public being exposed to gambling inducements.
“In many cases gambling promotions can be legally offered to betting account holders who, unlike the general public, have made a conscious decision to open an account and have expressly consented to receive this information.”
“However, wagering operators can’t advertise or promote inducements such as offers of increased odds or bonus bets to entice people to open a betting account or to gamble more frequently,” she added.
The latest punishment comes weeks after Tabcorp was handed a record A$1m fine by the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission over failing to comply with two separate information requests from the regulator relating to a major system outage in 2020.