Responsible Wagering Australia

RWA is committed to working collaboratively with Australia’s major sporting codes and the racing industry to foster both responsible wagering and protect the integrity of Australian sport and racing. 

EVIDENCE 

RWA members are major financial supporters of domestic sport and racing, each year contributing millions in product fees to Australian racing codes and sporting codes.

RWA members paid hundreds of millions of dollars each year directly to the Australian racing industry supporting trainers, jockeys, and other participants. Additionally, RWA members pay some of the highest tax rates in the world, with 51 cents in every dollar of revenue being paid as tax.

Although these significant fees are in theory to be used to fund the integrity of sport and racing, often there is little nexus between fees charged and integrity and responsible wagering outcomes with racing product fees paid by RWA members increasing 174% and sport fees by 260% over just 4 years. 

ACTIONS 

• A viable and competitive domestic wagering industry is critical to both protecting the integrity of sport and racing as well as promoting responsible wagering in the Australian community.
  
• RWA does not engage in the commercial negotiation of the level of fees themselves, however RWA is committed to pursuing with racing and sporting bodies opportunities to reduce the regulatory compliance costs that stem from conflicting definitions in product fee and integrity arrangements and to increase collaboration on responsible wagering programs. 
  

• RWA will advance these and any actions based upon furthering the long-term viability of the Australian wagering industry, promoting responsible wagering over stigmatising of sports wagering and the integrity of events. 

A viable and competitive domestic wagering market is fundamental to combatting wagering-related integrity threats.  Members of Responsible Wagering Australia are committed to working with government and law enforcement, including Sport Integrity Australia to protect the integrity of Australian sport. 

The key wagering-related integrity issues for sport arethe lack of a consistent national approach to match-fixing, and the ongoing largescale operation of illegal overseas gambling websites offering services to Australian consumers. 

ACTIONS 

• Responsible Wagering Australia is committed to supporting government and law enforcement, including Sport Integrity Australia, combat threats to the integrity of sport. RWA supports investigative and advisory functions for Sport Integrity Australia to support sport controlling bodies maintain the integrity of their events. The functions of Sport Integrity Australia should not however amount to a de facto regulation of the wagering industry itself.  
• As existing regulatory settings are performing well, any case for re-regulating the governance of sports wagering integrity arrangements must be done with a clear evidence base. 
• Industry and other stakeholders should not be targeted to fund any expanded sporting integrity functions or operations, and any regulatory case to expand these operations must be based on a clear and agreed evidence base and appropriate consideration of cost versus benefit. 
• Technology neutral regulation of in-play sports wagering by removing the arbitrary prohibition of in-play wagering online with Australian-licensed wagering service providers.  This is an ongoing and identified threat to the integrity of sports and has the perverse outcome of driving Australian consumers to unregulated, illegal offshore betting websites. 

Responsible Wagering Australia (RWA) supports strong regulatory action to prevent illegal offshore gambling websites from offering products and services to Australian consumers. These illegal online platforms entice Australian consumers by offering products prohibited in the Australian market, such as in play betting.  As they pay no Australian taxes and make no contribution to the domestic sports and racing industry, they are free to offer strong financial incentives to Australian consumers. 

All customers betting with licensed Australian online providers must have verified accounts and this is supported by a range of effective responsible gambling measures, such as deposit limits, time-outs, detailed activity statements and self-exclusion.  Illegal offshore websites provide none of these consumer protections. With hundreds of these sites actively targeting the Australian market, the risk to consumer protection is significant.

EVIDENCE 

Research released by the International Betting Integrity Organisation and H2 Gambling Capital released this year found that Australia’s illegal offshore market currently makes up a concerning 25% of the entire market and is expected to cost the economy more than $500 million is in lost tax revenue alone from 2024-2028. In contrast, the UK has a wide product availability and will only lose $46 million to the offshore market over the same period.

ACTION 

In response to the ongoing threat of illegal offshore gambling websites, RWA supports: 

• The ongoing role of the Australian Communications and Media Authority, through the Interactive Gambling Act 2001, in targeting illegal offshore operators. 
• Recurrent government funding allocations to advance consumer awareness campaigns highlighting the illegal nature of offshore gambling sites. 
• Governments ensuring that Australia is not only offering the highest standards of consumer protection, but also fostering a viable taxation and regulatory environment to Australian-licensed operators. 

RWA supports having consistent laws across the nation to provide clarity for both gambling operators and consumers. This eliminates confusion, encourages cooperation between different states and territories, and also helps with the collection of data to build a strong evidence base and develop regulatory measures.

Responsible Wagering Australia (RWA) acknowledges community sentiment has changed in regard to the current levels of gambling advertising. RWA is committed to participating in collaborative conversations on the topic of advertising reform and exploring evidence-based solutions that sustainably support wider downstream industries such as sport, racing and media. 

The practice and promotion of responsible gambling is central to the way Responsible Wagering Australia (RWA) and its members operate.  We are committed to providing consumers with the world’s best responsible gambling tools. The online wagering market in Australia is one of the most tightly regulated globally and provides Australians with unparalleled consumer protections.  These protections have been further strengthened by the development of a National Consumer Protection Framework (NCPF) for Online Wagering.

RWA strongly advocated for the introduction of the NCPF and are pleased that all 10 measures have now been implemented.

The NCPF measures include: 

• Prohibition of lines of credit being offered by wagering service providers. 
• Prohibition of links between wagering and payday lending. 
• Strengthened customer age and identity verification procedures. 
• Restrictions on inducements, including a ban on account sign-up offers. 
• Simpler account closure procedures. 
• Voluntary opt-out pre-commitment (i.e. the mandatory ability to set a deposit limit). 
• Activity statements. 
• More consistent responsible gambling messaging. 
• Staff training in the provision of responsible gambling online. 
• A National Self-Exclusion Register. 

Responsible Wagering Australia (RWA) believes that point of consumption tax (POCT) must remain at a fair and sustainable rate in all states and territories.

Evidence has shown that increasing the Point of Consumption tax can have a dramatic and negative impact on the market through reduced sponsorship spend, higher prices (through less favourable odds) and the reduction of promotions.

This in turn leads to government revenue from POCT actually decreasing as well as significantly reduced racing and sport turnover in the long term.

RWA is happy to work with governments to look at ways to support sport and racing that don’t include increasing taxes to rates that are unviable for operators.