Australians will soon be able to ban themselves from all online gambling companies in every state and territory using just one form, almost five years after legislation was introduced to parliament.
A national self-exclusion register for online gambling dubbed “BetStop” will be launched on 21 August, the federal government says.
It will replace systems in the states and territories that have been criticised as ineffective as they do not cover all bookmakers.
Legislation to create a national register was introduced by the then communications minister, Paul Fletcher, in 2018. But it was never created despite industry support and was further delayed this year, when the company working on its implementation, Big Village Australia, went into voluntary administration.
A recovering gambling addict, John, who lobbied Fletcher to introduce the national register, said it would save lives. John self-excluded himself from about 75 online bookmakers but kept getting contacted by new companies that registered in different states or territories.
“To this day, I have been passionately campaigning for the urgent implementation of the national self-exclusion register, only to be told repeatedly ‘we are nearly there’,” said John, who has asked for his last name to be withheld.
“If BetStop had been operational when I first raised my hand and asked for help, I would not be living in insecure accommodation, wondering where I am going to be in 10 years’ time, and whether I’ll have a roof over my head.”
Lauren Levin, a longtime harm reduction campaigner with Financial Counselling Australia, has also been lobbying the federal government to introduce a national register since 2015.
“Not a week passes without someone reaching out with a devastating story about their son, or friend, or about being broken and wanting to end their shame,” Levin said. “There is a hidden epidemic of gambling harm. It is far worse than most people think,.
“Now that BetStop is in place, the next step is to make self-exclusion work for people with a national self-exclusion register that covers all forms of gambling, not just online gambling.
“It feels like we’re on the cusp of a new era, where Australians will get meaningful consumer protections to not just minimise online gambling harm, but prevent it.”
The communications minister, Michelle Rowland, will launch BetStop at Parliament House on Monday.
Rowland is still considering a parliamentary inquiry’s recommendation to ban all gambling advertisements after a three-year transition period.
“The launch of Australia’s first national self-exclusion register, BetStop, is a game changer, and will make it easy for vulnerable consumers to self-exclude from online wagering services,” Rowland said.
“BetStop is the last of 10 measures to be implemented under the National Consumer Protection Framework for online wagering to empower Australians through stronger consumer protections.”
The social services minister, Amanda Rishworth, said an effective self-exclusion register could change people’s lives and make it easier to quit gambling.
“We know minimising the harm caused by online gambling is not a set-and-forget exercise and I look forward to working with my state and territory counterparts on what comes next to continue this positive change,” Rishworth said.
BetStop will require gambling companies to verify a person’s identity before they can accept a bet, instead of the previously proposed 72-hour window. This timeframe had been criticised by the Northern Territory Racing Commission, which regulates the majority of online bookmakers in Australia, because it could have allowed a vulnerable person using an alias to gamble for days before their true identity was revealed.
Australians already listed on state or territory self-exclusion registers will not be automatically transferred to the national replacement for privacy reasons.
Several gambling companies have been fined for sending inducements or advertising to people on the NT’s self-exclusion register but harm reduction advocates say the penalties are too low to have an impact.
A parliamentary inquiry into online gambling has recommended that the federal government play a bigger oversight role and create a national regulator.
