iGaming Business magazine iGB 111 July/Aug | Page 117

Marketing & Affiliates
Disclaimer days
are over in NSW…
and beyond
A crackdown on the advertising of gambling inducements in Australia’s NSW has repercussions
that extend far beyond its boundaries, says Joanne Christie
Introductory free bet and bonus offers have long been one of the
primary ways operators looked to pull in new punters in Australia.
But it’s about to get a lot riskier to use them thanks to a change in the
rules in NSW, the country’s most populous state.
The NSW government, via the Betting and Racing Act 1998, has
long banned advertisements offering inducements to gamble or
open a wagering account that could be taken up by NSW residents.
But as long as operators put a disclaimer on their ads and made
sure NSW residents couldn’t sign up for them, they were free to run
their offers across any media without too much concern.
But the amendments, which came into force on 2 July, ban any
advertisement published to the “world at large” that is able to be
viewed, heard or accessed by NSW residents.
Essentially, this means operators will not be able to advertise
inducements in any nationwide form of media unless NSW
residents can somehow be excluded. For online operators this is
particularly problematic as typically their websites and social media
are not state-specific.
“There is still a big risk

that affiliates could find themselves
in hot water with the regulator”
When the government first released its draft guidelines back
in March, it received a large number of objections from corporate
bookmakers and also media outlets, with the latter being
concerned they could also be on the hook for the huge fines the
changes to the Act brought in by publishing adverts on behalf
of gambling companies.
Shortly afterwards, Responsible Wagering Australia’s executive
director Stephen Conroy told iGB: “RWA was concerned by the
lack of consultation prior to legislation being introduced into
the NSW Parliament. It is never the intent of RWA members to
be non-compliant with government regulations.
“However, because of the lack of consultation, there are likely
to be broad unintended consequences which will conflict with
the regulations in place in other Australian states and the ability
of wagering operators to service customers outside of NSW.”
Unfortunately, the regulator doesn’t seem to have paid much
attention to the objections received when it did consult as the final
guidelines, released last week by Liquor & Gaming NSW, are little
changed from the original guidelines.
“There are a couple of tweaks but it is mostly semantics,” says
Jamie Nettleton, a partner specialising in gaming law at Sydney law
firm Addisons.
Racing exemption raises eyebrows
Interestingly, however, one change is that the regulator said it did not
intend to enforce the rules in relation to racing-only platforms.
This is something Dean Shannon, founder of relatively new
Australian sportsbook Neds, says he takes issue with. “Can’t say
I agree with it all, especially the carve-out for racing only websites
and broadcasters, which is clearly favouring the TAB properties.
In my view inducements to NSW residents is either allowed or not.”
Without reading the guidelines too closely, a canny sportsbook
operator or affiliate could be forgiven for thinking it might not be
too bad an idea to strip out their racing content from their other
sports to qualify for the racing exemption.
But this too would fall foul of the regulator, says Nettleton.
“The important point in there is it is about existing platforms,
so if I was to suddenly change or start providing something new
down the track that doesn’t seem to be covered by this exemption,
even though that doesn’t really seem sensible [regulation].”
The regulator does say it will not consider an advertisement to
have been published online where the operator has geo-blocked
all advertisements so NSW residents can’t see them, but one
iGamingBusiness | Issue 111 | July/August 2018
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