The Interactive Gambling Amendment (Ban Gambling Ads) Bill 2024 inserts a new Part 7AA into the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 to phase out advertising for licensed interactive wagering services. The measure defines what counts as an advertisement, creates exceptions (political communication, anti‑gambling messages, business documents, libraries, etc.), and gives the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) power to make rules by legislative instrument to implement a four‑phase prohibition schedule.
The staged approach begins with targeted bans in news and current affairs, certain commercial radio time slots and online publication, and moves to time‑of‑day and sporting‑event restrictions before reaching a near-total prohibition within three years. The bill matters because it shifts responsibility for detailed implementation to the ACMA, sets an Australia‑nexus test for online content, and forces major advertisers, broadcasters, sporting bodies and digital platforms to rethink revenue models and compliance strategies.
At a Glance
What It Does
The bill adds a new Part 7AA that (1) defines licensed interactive wagering service advertisements and a set of exceptions, (2) treats online publication differently from broadcasting, and (3) requires the ACMA to make rules that implement a four‑phase prohibition on such advertising.
Who It Affects
Licensed wagering operators, commercial broadcasters (television and radio), online content providers and platforms, advertising and media agencies, and sporting bodies that rely on wagering sponsorship are directly affected. Libraries, business service providers and political communicators are carved out by specific exceptions.
Why It Matters
If implemented, the rules will remove large swathes of wagering advertising inside Australia within a three‑year window, altering media and sponsorship revenue streams and creating a new regulatory role for the ACMA to set technical and enforcement details via legislative instrument.
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What This Bill Actually Does
The bill creates a dedicated, stand‑alone Part 7AA in the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 that maps the path from partial limits to an almost complete advertising ban for licensed wagering services. It begins by stating clear definitions — what counts as a licensed interactive wagering service and what counts as an advertisement — and then lists a series of specific exceptions so the prohibition will not sweep up neutral business documents, on‑site signage, explicit anti‑gambling campaigns, or political communications that do not aim to promote wagering.
Publication rules are split between general publication (including physical print, displays in public places, and distribution of material) and online publication (placement on websites). Critically, the bill treats broadcasting and datacasting separately: the statutory definition of “publish” expressly excludes broadcast or datacast, which lets the Act target broadcasters via the separate phase rules rather than by using the generic publication definition.
For online material, the bill adopts an Australia‑nexus test — an online advertisement counts as published “in Australia” only if the website is accessible to end users in Australia and it is likely that a majority of the site’s users are physically present in Australia.Rather than prescribing the prohibitions in primary legislation, the bill requires the ACMA to make Online Gambling Advertisement Prohibition rules by legislative instrument. The ACMA must consult the Minister, and before making rules it must consider whether compensatory or support arrangements are appropriate and whether penalties should be imposed to support the prohibition.
Implementation is phased: an initial phase (as soon as practicable) targets news/current affairs and certain radio time slots and online publication; a second phase (within 12 months) restricts ads around live sporting coverage and explicitly includes commentator betting‑odds promotion; a third phase (within two years) imposes a 6:00 pm–10:00 pm prohibition; and a final phase (within three years) delivers the broad prohibition on broadcast/datacast, online provision and publication in Australia.Taken together, the bill delegates most of the technical and operational choices to the ACMA but builds a statutory scaffold of definitions, exceptions and timing. That design leaves legal contours — such as what counts as ‘‘likely’’ Australian audience for a website, how commentator references will be treated, and whether particular sponsorship acknowledgements survive the ban — to be resolved in the rules the ACMA must craft.
The Five Things You Need to Know
The bill defines a "licensed interactive wagering service" to require both that the service is a wagering service and that it have an Australian customer link, excluding services provided in breach of a specific prohibition in section 15AA(3).
Phase one requires the ACMA, as soon as practicable, to ban wagering ads in news and current affairs programs, online publication, and commercial radio ads during 8:30–9:00 am and 3:30–4:00 pm.
Phase two (within 12 months) extends the ban to broadcasts, datacasts and online content that promotes wagering during the period from one hour before to one hour after live sporting coverage and expressly includes commentator betting‑odds promotion.
The bill makes online publication “in Australia” only if a website is accessible to end users in Australia and, considering the site’s content and promotion, it is likely a majority of users are physically present in Australia—creating a fact‑intensive nexus test for enforcement.
The ACMA must make the prohibition rules by legislative instrument and, before doing so, must consider support or compensatory arrangements, whether penalties are appropriate, and consult the Minister.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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Statement that licensed interactive wagering ads will be prohibited after staged implementation
This amendment inserts an express note in the Act that licensed interactive wagering services will be banned from advertising following the staged implementation process. Practically, it signals Parliament’s intent and anchors the later detailed provisions in Part 7AA; it does not itself prescribe operational detail but makes the prohibition an explicit statutory object.
Definitions and scope—who and what the rules will cover
Division 1 supplies the working vocabulary the ACMA and courts will use: how to identify a broadcasting service, a datacasting service, an "exempt library," and — importantly — what a "licensed interactive wagering service" is (wagering service + Australian customer link + not in breach of section 15AA(3)). These definitions narrow the field of application to services with a domestic connection and exclude certain transmission modes (for example, some datacasting and non‑broadcast internet services are treated separately). Agencies and regulated entities will need to map their products to these definitions to determine compliance obligations.
What counts as an advertisement and the statutory exceptions
Division 2 sets a broad, content-and-form inclusive definition of advertisement (visual/audio material, marks, domain names, words closely associated with a service). It then lists exceptions that are operationally significant: political communications that do not promote wagering; website content and business documents at points of provision; signage on provider premises; anti‑gambling messaging; and other advertisement types the regulations may exempt. Those carve-outs create multiple compliance pathways — for example, ordinary business stationery or staff recruitment ads are excluded — but they also introduce interpretation questions around borderline materials and secondary promotion (e.g., screenshots of websites used in press reports).
Publication mechanics—where and when material is treated as published
These Divisions explain what it means to publish an advertisement in the traditional sense (print, public displays, distribution) and online (inclusion on a website). Notably, broadcast and datacast are excluded from the statutory "publish" definition, so the Act uses separate prohibitions and timing rules to regulate broadcasters. The drafting also creates specific exceptions—trade communications, phone directory entries (unless the online entry links to a wagering website), and exempt library activities—each of which will require publishers and platform operators to audit naming conventions, links and metadata to stay compliant.
ACMA rulemaking power and the four phased prohibition deadlines
Division 5 gives the ACMA the job of making Online Gambling Advertisement Prohibition rules as legislative instruments and lists procedural requirements: the ACMA must consider compensation/support measures and penalties and consult the Minister before making rules. It then prescribes four implementation phases: (1) as soon as practicable—news/current affairs, certain radio slots and online publication and general publication restrictions; (2) within 12 months—coverage around live sporting events and commentator odds; (3) within two years—a 6pm–10pm prohibition window; and (4) within three years—a near‑total ban on broadcast/datacast, online provision and publication in Australia. The section therefore leaves timing and many technical exclusions to the ACMA but fixes non‑negotiable staging endpoints.
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Explore Government in Codify Search →Who Benefits and Who Bears the Cost
Every bill creates winners and losers. Here's who stands to gain and who bears the cost.
Who Benefits
- People at risk of gambling harm and public health advocates — the staged removal of advertising reduces exposure to wagering promotions, which public health research links to lower impulse betting and reduced normalisation of gambling for younger audiences.
- Regulatory agencies and policymakers — the bill centralises implementation authority with the ACMA, giving regulators a clear statutory mandate to craft detailed operational rules and address digital delivery channels.
- Non‑betting advertisers and broadcast program makers — over time, media inventory previously dominated by wagering advertisers is likely to become available to other advertisers, and program content may face fewer commercial constraints around gambling sponsorship.
Who Bears the Cost
- Licensed wagering operators — they will lose a primary marketing channel and face curtailed customer acquisition and brand‑building opportunities in Australia, potentially reducing revenue and affecting product offerings.
- Commercial broadcasters, radio licensees, and sports organisations — these stakeholders face material revenue impacts from reduced ad sales and wagering sponsorship, forcing renegotiation of funding models for programming and live sports coverage.
- Online platforms and ad networks — they must implement geo‑audience assessments, takedown processes, and compliance controls to apply the Australia‑nexus test, increasing operational and legal costs; ad agencies will need new targeting rules and review workflows.
- The ACMA and government bodies — the ACMA will incur administrative and enforcement costs to draft legislative instruments, consult stakeholders, and run compliance and potential enforcement activities, with the bill explicitly requiring the regulator to weigh support/compensation and penalties.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The bill tackles the legitimate public‑health goal of reducing exposure to wagering promotion but does so by imposing substantial commercial costs and shifting complex implementation questions to the regulator: the central dilemma is how to balance a robust, enforceable prohibition that meaningfully reduces advertising exposure with practical, proportionate rules that avoid unworkable compliance burdens, jurisdictional gaps on the open internet, and unintended disruption to sports and media funding.
The bill deliberately delegates granular design and many enforcement choices to the ACMA by using a rulemaking-by‑instrument approach. That design speeds legislative passage but shifts legal uncertainty to the rulemaking phase: the ACMA will decide how tightly to define edge cases (for example, what constitutes "commentator betting odds promotion" versus legitimate sports commentary) and how to operationalise the Australia‑nexus test for websites.
Those choices will determine whether the prohibition is administrable on a large scale or invites litigation and circumvention.
The exceptions framework creates both a safety valve and a compliance headache. Carve‑outs for political communication, business documents, anti‑gambling messages, and exempt libraries reduce risks of overbreadth but require line‑drawing that will produce contested facts (is a sponsorship acknowledgement an allowable acknowledgment of support or a prohibited promotional mention?).
The Australia‑nexus test for online publication is particularly fraught: platforms that serve mixed‑geography audiences will need new data processes to show where a majority of users are physically located, and small publishers may lack those capabilities. Finally, the bill directs the ACMA to consider compensation and penalties — introducing negotiation over whether and how the industry might be compensated for lost advertising value or whether penalties will be necessary to ensure compliance — but it leaves no pre‑packaged funding or penalty design, creating uncertainty for affected sectors.
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