A flagship gambling reform in Australia, designed to curb harmful betting by banning credit cards for online wagering, has had little effect on the country's most prolific gamblers, a new economic report has found.
Heavy Bettors Switch Accounts, Not Habits
The research, conducted by the e61 Institute, indicates that the 2024 prohibition succeeded in stopping credit card bets but failed to reduce overall spending for most dedicated gamblers. Instead, the majority simply switched to using transaction accounts, continuing to wager with their own money.
The average fortnightly betting spend for credit card users fell from just over $200 across all accounts to $0 on credit cards, but remained at $150 via transaction accounts. The study concluded that these gamblers typically had sufficient funds to continue betting without interruption, rendering the ban merely an inconvenience rather than a deterrent.
Loopholes Remain and Casual Gamblers Quit
The report's co-author, Adit Maitra, stated that the reform did not effectively restrict borrowing for gambling. "It's not super clear that [the ban] has restricted borrowing to gamble in any sense," Maitra said.
Significant loopholes were left unaddressed by the government, including using credit cards for cash advances, depositing funds into PayPal accounts, or taking out personal loans to gamble. Meanwhile, the minority who did reduce their spending were typically casual betters who stopped altogether due to the added inconvenience.
Maitra pointed out that the ban also did not prevent credit spending on lotteries or, indirectly, on poker machines, which are associated with the most significant gambling harm. "Hitting that section of the market might have more of an effect on reducing harms than hitting some other sections," he noted.
Broken Promises and Flouted Rules
This research adds to growing scrutiny of the Albanese government's gambling reforms. Another key policy, the BetStop self-exclusion register, has only 30,000 active exclusions despite an estimated 400,000 Australians being high-risk gamblers. The e61 study found public awareness of BetStop is low and wagering providers are failing to promote it actively.
Other recent rules are being ignored. The Northern Territory regulator fined Sportsbet $313,140 in November after it failed to send mandatory monthly activity statements to thousands of customers over 18 months. A Sportsbet spokesperson said the company had self-reported the issue.
Gambling expert and consumer advocate Lauren Levin argued the government must take further action. "This government does a lot of bragging about everything it has done for gambling consumer protection, but those measures were only ever designed to be first steps," she said.
The online gambling peak body, Responsible Wagering Australia, declined to share data on any decline in membership or revenue. Its chief executive, Kai Cantwell, said betting companies had strongly supported the credit card ban, which successfully prevented large credit card debts but did not limit debit spending.
