The Interactive Gambling Act 2001 is the Commonwealth law that decides what can and cannot be offered to Australians online. In one sentence: it makes it an offence to provide online casino games — pokies, blackjack, roulette, live dealer — to a person in Australia, it prohibits advertising those services, and it leaves sports betting, race betting and lotteries to be licensed by the states and territories. It says nothing about penalising the person who plays.
The Act is short by the standards of gambling legislation and it is worth understanding directly rather than through the summaries that circulate on casino sites. The compiled text is published on legislation.gov.au. Everything below is general information, not legal advice.
Why the Act exists
By 2000 online casinos were an emerging problem no state licensing regime had been built for. The Commonwealth response was a prohibition on supply: rather than trying to police players or block payments, the Act attacked the act of providing the service into Australia. That basic design has never changed. Everything added since — civil penalties, ACMA’s enforcement powers, domain blocking — has been about making the same prohibition enforceable against operators sitting in other countries.
Section 15: the core prohibition
Section 15 makes it an offence to provide a prohibited interactive gambling service to a customer who is physically present in Australia. Three parts of that phrase carry the weight:
- Provide. The conduct caught is supplying the service. Using it is not an element of the offence.
- Prohibited interactive gambling service. Defined in the Act’s opening sections and aimed at games of chance played for money over the internet — the casino category, including online pokies.
- Physically present in Australia. Location of the customer, not nationality. An Australian overseas is outside it; a visitor here is inside it.
The offence applies whether or not the operator is based in Australia. That extraterritorial reach is what allows ACMA to act against companies registered in Curaçao or Malta, and it is also why enforcement in practice lands on domains and payments rather than on courtrooms.
What the Act allows
The Act carves out categories rather than granting licences itself — licensing is done by the states and territories. The main exclusions:
- Betting on sport and racing, placed before the event begins. This is the licensed Australian bookmaker market.
- In-play betting by telephone or in person. Betting during a match is not permitted online; the 2017 amendments closed the “click to call” services that had been used to blur this.
- Lotteries and keno sold by licensed operators. Separate 2018 amendments prohibited betting on the outcome of lotteries — synthetic lottery products — which is a different thing from selling a ticket.
- Games with no real-money prize. Free-to-play and social casino apps fall outside the Act entirely, which is why they are freely available; we cover the practical differences on our free pokies page.
What the 2017 amendments changed
The Interactive Gambling Amendment Act 2017, which commenced in September 2017, is the most consequential update. It did four things:
- Added a prohibition on unlicensed regulated services. Previously an offshore bookmaker could argue it fell in a grey zone; the amendment made it an offence to provide a regulated interactive gambling service to Australians without an Australian licence.
- Introduced civil penalties alongside the existing criminal offences, which are far easier to pursue against a foreign company than a prosecution is.
- Gave ACMA real enforcement powers — investigation, formal warnings, infringement notices, civil penalty proceedings, referral to overseas regulators, and the ability to have company directors placed on the Movement Alert List.
- Ended the in-play workaround by closing the click-to-call loophole.
Domain blocking followed in 2019 as an administrative measure built on those powers rather than a new prohibition. How it works, and what to do if it strands your account, is on our ACMA blocked casinos page.
Part 7A: the advertising ban
Part 7A prohibits publishing advertisements for prohibited and unlicensed interactive gambling services in Australia. It is broader than television and radio: it catches print, online placements and, in principle, promotion by affiliates and influencers targeting an Australian audience. This is why the offshore casino market here is promoted through channels that are difficult to police, and why the reputable end of the review industry is explicit about how it earns.
We are, on our about page: this site carries affiliate links, every page that lists operators says so, and no operator pays for a better score. Advertising and information are different things, and a reader is entitled to know which one they are looking at.
Penalties — for operators
Breaching section 15 is both a criminal offence and a civil penalty contravention. The penalties are calculated per day of offending and are expressed in penalty units, which means a sustained breach produces figures in the millions of dollars. ACMA publishes its enforcement outcomes and refers the most serious matters to the Federal Court. In practice the more common outcomes are formal warnings, blocking requests to internet providers, and pressure applied through payment processors and international regulators — slower than a prosecution, but effective enough that operators rotate domains continuously.
What it means if you are the player
Nothing in the Act creates an offence for using one of these services. No Australian has been prosecuted for holding an account at an offshore casino, and there is no provision under which that could happen. What you should take from the Act instead is the consequence of its structure: because no online casino can be licensed here, none is subject to Australian consumer rules, dispute resolution or audit requirements. The operator’s own licence — Curaçao, Anjouan, Kahnawake, Malta — becomes the only accountability available, which is why our offshore casinos page spends so long on how to read one.
Two related points sit outside the Act but matter for the same reason. Recreational winnings are not taxed in Australia, as explained on our tax page. And BetStop, the national self-exclusion register, covers licensed wagering services only — an important gap if you are relying on it, and one reason the tools on our responsible gambling page go beyond a single register.
Offshore casinos are not licensed in Australia. The Interactive Gambling Act 2001 targets operators, not players. 18+. Gambling Help Online 1800 858 858. We earn a commission when you sign up through our links. It costs you nothing and does not change the ranking — see how we rate.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the Interactive Gambling Act make it illegal to play online pokies?
No. The Act creates offences for providing and advertising the service. Using it is not an offence, and the Act contains no penalty aimed at players.
Who does the Act apply to?
Anyone providing a prohibited interactive gambling service to a customer physically present in Australia, regardless of where the provider is based, plus anyone publishing advertisements for such a service in Australia.
What changed in 2017?
The amendments prohibited unlicensed regulated services, added civil penalties, gave ACMA proper enforcement powers and closed the click-to-call loophole for in-play betting. Domain blocking followed in 2019 using those powers.
Is online sports betting covered by the same ban?
No. Betting on sport and racing placed before an event is excluded and is licensed by the states and territories. In-play betting is still not permitted online, though it can be placed by telephone or in person.
Are free social casino apps affected?
No. Games without a real-money prize fall outside the Act, which is why they appear in the app stores while real-money offshore casinos do not.