The Interactive Gambling Act explained

The Interactive Gambling Act 2001 (Cth), usually shortened to the IGA, is the Commonwealth law that sets which gambling services may be offered or advertised to people in Australia online, in an app or by phone. It licenses no one. It bans some services outright, allows the rest only under a state or territory licence, and gives the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) the powers to enforce both.

The Act is best explained as a rulebook for businesses. Its offences and civil penalties are aimed at the companies that provide or advertise gambling services, and the core offences count again for every day a breach continues. Parliament has amended it several times since 2001, most recently through the Interactive Gambling Amendment (Gambling Reform) Act 2026, most of which starts on 1 January 2027.

Banned, licensed or outside the Act

The Act sorts gambling services into categories, and the category decides what a business may do. A prohibited interactive gambling service (s 5) is any gambling service a business provides over the internet, a phone line, a broadcast or another content service, unless s 5(3) excludes it.

The exclusions cover wagering on racing, sport and other events within the limits s 8A sets, plus lotteries (s 8D) and a few narrower categories. Most excluded services then count as regulated interactive gambling services (s 8E), which may only be provided under a state or territory licence (s 15AA).

The Act's reach is wide. A service has an Australian-customer link if any of its customers is physically present in Australia (s 8), and the Act extends to conduct outside Australia (s 14). An overseas company that takes a bet from one person here is inside it.

Who the Act binds, and how breaches are counted

Each duty lands on a particular kind of business:

• Providers: s 15 for prohibited services, s 15AA for unlicensed regulated services, and s 15C for credit and banned payment methods.
• Advertisers, broadcasters and publishers: Part 7A, which bans advertising an illegal service.
• Internet service providers: an industry code registered under Part 4, plus ACMA's blocking requests under the Telecommunications Act 1997.
• From 1 January 2027, banks and other payment system participants and online services, under the 2026 amendments.

Section 3, the Act's simplified outline, lists the prohibitions as things that "must not be provided" or "must not be advertised". Online betting on a sporting event after it has begun is one of them, and the in-play betting guide covers how s 10B defines it.

Advertising an illegal service is banned too

Part 7A bans advertising a designated interactive gambling service, which is the Act's term for a prohibited service or an unlicensed regulated one. An advertisement is anything that promotes the service, its trade mark, a domain name or URL relating to it, or words closely associated with it (s 61BA).

The ban covers broadcasting (s 61DA) and publication, websites included (s 61EA). A website ad is taken to be published in Australia if most people who access the site are likely to be here (s 61EA(3)).

So a logo, a link or a bare web address can be an advertisement on its own. ACMA has warned social media influencers that promoting illegal online gambling breaks the law, and the 2026 amendments extend the ban to social media services from 1 January 2027. The offshore betting sites guide covers what you risk by depositing with an unlicensed site.

Credit, credit cards and cryptocurrency

Under s 15C a wagering provider must not offer or provide credit to a customer in Australia, or facilitate or promote credit from someone else, such as a payday lender. The credit rule took effect on 17 February 2018. Section 15D makes one narrow exception: a small on-course bookmaker (wagering turnover under $30 million) may give credit on phone bets taken wholly by voice call.

Since 11 June 2024 s 15C has also covered payment methods. Online and phone wagering providers, including on-course bookmakers' online and phone services, may not accept payment by credit card, through a digital wallet linked to a credit card, or in digital currency such as cryptocurrency. The credit card betting ban guide covers what it means for your account.

BetStop sits inside the Act

A 2019 amendment allowed the National Self-Exclusion Register, which launched as BetStop on 21 August 2023 under Part 7B. A single registration reaches every wagering provider licensed in Australia that takes bets online or by phone, about 150 of them according to ACMA's BetStop page, last updated 17 July 2026.

Under Part 7B those providers must not provide a betting service to, market to or open an account for a registered person. They must also close the accounts a registered person already holds, and promote the register. The BetStop guide covers registering, and the change to the removal process that starts on 1 January 2027.

How ACMA enforces the Act

ACMA can investigate on its own initiative or after a complaint. Depending on the breach, it can:

• give a formal warning or an infringement notice
• accept an enforceable undertaking or issue a remedial direction
• pursue civil penalties, or refer a matter to police or the Director of Public Prosecutions
• refer the directors and principals of an offending company to the Australian Border Force, which can place them on the Movement Alert List
• ask internet service providers to block an illegal website under s 313 of the Telecommunications Act 1997

Blocking is the tool most punters notice. ACMA publishes the list of blocked gambling websites, and the Government's May 2026 response put the total at over 1,500 since blocking started. A block can lock customers out of accounts and balances they already hold. ACMA's other warnings about illegal operators are also about money: winnings that go unpaid, and balances that vanish when a site closes or moves, with no Australian regulator able to step in.

ACMA also investigates licensed providers, for example over their BetStop duties, and publishes the outcomes. Complaints about a licensed provider's other conduct go to the authority that licenses it.

How the Act has changed since 2001

ACMA's page on the Act (updated 21 August 2026) says more than 220 online gambling services have withdrawn from the Australian market since the 2017 reforms. The same reforms created ACMA's public register (s 68), listing each trading name's licence holder, website and licensing authority; the licence check guide shows how to search it.

What the 2026 amendments add

The amending Act's main changes start on 1 January 2027:

• wagering ad limits around live sport, a cap on daytime TV ads, a radio ban at school drop-off and pick-up times, and the online triple lock
• a Wagering Advertising Opt-out Register, opening on a day fixed by Proclamation
• no direct marketing of inducements to new account holders, people who recently left BetStop or customers identified as at risk, from a later day the Minister sets
• no commissions to staff or affiliates based on customer activity
• duties on banks and online services to block payments to, and access to, illegal operators
• a new process for leaving BetStop, and bans on online keno and foreign matched lotteries

The 2026 gambling reforms guide covers each change, with its timing and its exceptions.

Common misreadings of the Act

Reading the Act yourself

The Federal Register of Legislation publishes the Act as compilations, and when checked in October 2026 the latest was Compilation No. 24, dated 14 October 2024. A compilation shows the law in force on its date, and its notes list only amendments made by that date. So the 2026 changes are in neither the text nor the notes of Compilation No. 24, and uncommenced amendments are available separately on the Register. The sections punters ask about most: