Australia’s illegal offshore gambling market has more than doubled since 2019, with Australians now losing $3.9 billion a year to illegal sites and this figure rising to $5 billion by 2029, according to new research by H2 Gambling Capital for Responsible Wagering Australia (RWA).

That’s $3.9 billion being lost to criminal offshore operators who offer no consumer protections, pay no taxes, and return nothing to Australian sport, racing or the community.

The report shows the offshore market now makes up 36% of all online gambling in Australia, with its rapid growth set to cost governments almost $2 billion in lost revenue over the next five years, and almost $800 million in lost product fees to sport and racing.

Annual losses are projected to reach $585 million by 2029, including $135 million stripped from racing and $40 million from sport every year.

The biggest victims of the illegal offshore market are consumers themselves, who lose access to the safeguards that exist onshore including safer gambling tools and dedicated teams who monitor behaviour in real time and step in to prevent harm before it occurs.

RWA CEO Kai Cantwell said Australian-licensed operators are tightly regulated to protect customers and prevent harm, but offshore sites exist in a regulatory wild west where there are no limits, no oversight, no guarantee you’ll ever see your winnings and no avenues for recourse when something goes wrong.

“These operations are often controlled by organised criminal networks in tax and regulatory safe havens, exploiting loopholes to launder money and dodge sanctions,” Mr Cantwell said.

Betstop is an incredibly successful Australian Government and industry partnership within Australian borders, but shockingly 50% of Australians gambling offshore have done so while registered on BetStop, undermining one of Australia’s most important safer gambling tools.

“Australia’s world-leading consumer protections are only effective if people stay within the system, and right now, it’s too easy to bypass them offshore with a few clicks,” Mr Cantwell said.

By avoiding taxes, product fees, integrity and compliance obligations, and safer gambling investments, offshore operators can out-compete licensed Australian providers – offering better odds, bigger bonuses and banned products like online casinos and live in-play betting that lure Australians to their dangerous sites.

 

While better odds (48%) and bonuses (44%) were the most commonly cited single reasons for gambling offshore, live in-play betting stands out as the most influential overall factor when respondents were asked what they consider critically or very important.

 

“Ensuring Australia’s onshore market stays competitive is essential, because if people can’t find the products or prices they want here, they don’t stop gambling, they just go offshore,” Mr Cantwell said.

Offshore operators also use predatory and misleading advertising primarily through social media influencers and affiliate networks to appear legitimate, with almost half of customers unable to tell if a site is legal.

“Unlike licensed operators, who use data to identify and support at-risk customers, illegal sites use it to target vulnerable Australians and minors with high-risk offers and exaggerated bonuses,” Mr Cantwell said.

While the ACMA are working hard to shut down illegal sites, even they admit that they lack the tools to shut down these criminals – which is why stronger enforcement, balanced with sensible onshore regulation and cooperation from industry, banks, tech platforms and sport is needed to cut off the lifelines that keep illegal operators in business.

“A strong, consistent national framework will protect Australians, preserve funding for sport and racing, and ensure initiatives like BetStop aren’t undermined by unregulated offshore sites.”

The report recommends a national crackdown to close enforcement gaps and protect consumers. The list of recommendations is summarised in an appendix to this media release.

Read the full report HERE

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RWA is an independent peak-body for Australian licensed wagering service providers. Members include Australia’s leading bookmakers including bet365, Picklebet, PointsBet, Sportsbet, Betfair and Unibet. RWA and its members are committed to ensuring that Australia has the best conducted, socially responsible wagering industry in the world. For more information please visit the Responsible Wagering Australia website.

H2 Gambling Capital is an independent, internationally recognised gambling data and forecasting firm, widely regarded as the global benchmark for market intelligence. For more than two decades, H2 has advised governments, regulators and industry bodies across Europe, North America, Asia and Australia, and has produced independent research for Australia in 2015, 2019, 2023 and now 2025.

To address the challenges set out in the Report, H2 have set out a coordinated reform agenda that they believe are necessary if Australia wants to strengthen its enforcement and consumer protection framework.

THEME	NUMBER	RECOMMENDATION
Sustainable and competitive onshore market	1	In considering further reform on taxation, marketing or consumer protection, policymakers and regulatory bodies should ensure reforms are in line with international best practice and effective in reducing harm while reducing the risk of further increasing offshore betting.
Coordinated blacklisting and blocking framework	2	Establish a National Illegal Gambling Blacklist Platform (NIGBP) to centralise all illegal gambling domains, mirror sites, and related app identifiers in one database to enable swift enforcement/take-down action from intermediaries.
Platform blocking and content removal	3	Empower the eSafety Commissioner to issue binding removal, link-deletion, app-removal and ISP-blocking notices for illegal offshore gambling sites and content.
Payments blocking	4	Require banks and major payment service providers to block transactions linked to illegal offshore gambling operators and merchants.
	5	AUSTRAC issue guidance to crypto exchanges on detecting and reporting gambling-linked wallets.
	6	Assess options to integrate the National Self-Exclusion Register with payment monitoring systems to block transactions from individuals registered with BetStop to operators and merchants listed on the NIGBP.
Consumer awareness and education	7	The licensed online betting industry work with Federal and state and territory regulators to introduce a national certification scheme and promote consumer awareness.
	8	Deliver a nationwide consumer awareness campaign to coincide with the rollout of the NIGBP to educate consumers on how to check for the legality and safety of online gambling sites.
Marketing restrictions	9	Search engines, social media platforms and other digital advertisers develop a Gambling Advertiser Verification API.
Sports/racing content policing	10	Establish a national framework ensuring that official Australian sports and racing data is supplied only to licensed betting operators.
International cooperation	11	The Federal Government negotiate bilateral enforcement agreements with key offshore jurisdictions and establish MOUs with major offshore gambling jurisdictions for mutual enforcement.