Is Online Gambling Legal in Australia?

Online gambling law in Australia at a glance

How Australia got here: a short history

1. 2000Moratorium on new online casinos
2. 2001Interactive Gambling Act passes
3. 2017Civil penalties; big brands exit
4. 2019ACMA website blocking begins
5. 2023BetStop self-exclusion launches
6. 2024Credit card and crypto ban

In 2000, the Australian government imposed a moratorium on online casinos while it decided whether they should be legal in Australia. In 2001 it passed the Interactive Gambling Act, which banned online casino games from being offered to Australians while letting wagering on sports and racing continue under existing state and territory licences.

For the sixteen years between 2001 and 2017 there were effectively no enforcement measures behind the Act, so foreign online casinos kept serving Australians openly. In 2017 the regulator was handed penalties it could use to enforce the Act, and the well-known international operators all left the market. From November 2019 it began working with internet service providers to block access to illegal casinos. The national self-exclusion register for online wagering arrived in August 2023, and the credit card and cryptocurrency ban came into force in June 2024.

The government has steadily tightened the rules on the licensed side and raised the punishment for illegal operators. What it has never done is create a way to license online casino games within Australia.

The Interactive Gambling Act 2001, briefly

The Interactive Gambling Act 2001 (IGA) is the national law that applies to online gambling. Section 15 makes it illegal to provide prohibited interactive gambling services to customers in Australia, which covers online pokies, table games, live dealer games, online poker and in-play sports betting. Section 15AA separately makes it illegal to run interactive wagering services without first obtaining an Australian licence.

The Act does not create an offence for the individual player. Both the government and the ACMA state plainly that it targets the operators of online gambling services. For a full section-by-section breakdown, see our Interactive Gambling Act 2001 explainer.

What is actually legal for Australians online?

Are you breaking the law by playing?

Not being prosecuted for playing is not the same as being legally protected. When an Australian plays at an international casino, they are playing under that company's licence, and if something goes wrong there is no Australian agency to receive the complaint. That is why we weigh licensing and published terms so heavily in our casino reviews.

Where the states fit in

The venues Australians can legally gamble in, the pokies and casino rooms in each state and the TAB, are regulated by the individual states and territories. The internet and online gambling fall to the federal Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) instead. No state licenses online casino games either, and each sets its own minimum gambling age of 18.

For the complete map of everyone who regulates gambling in Australia, see the dedicated guide on who regulates gambling in Australia.

What ACMA does about it

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is the agency that enforces the Interactive Gambling Act 2001. Since November 2019 it has worked with Australian internet service providers to block access to illegal online gambling websites, and the count stood at 1,708 gambling and affiliate sites blocked as of May 2026. It can also issue warnings and penalties to the companies that promote online casinos to Australians. Around 220 gambling operators have exited the Australian market since 2017.

Blocking changes the landscape without changing the law itself. Blocked casinos usually reappear behind fresh mirror domains within days, which is exactly why an international casino's web address so often carries a number. The full picture of who regulates what, including the state bodies and the complaints process, sits in who regulates gambling in Australia.

The 2024 credit card and crypto ban

On 11 June 2024, online betting companies licensed in Australia were banned from accepting credit cards, credit-linked digital wallets and digital currencies. The ban was created by the Interactive Gambling Amendment (Credit and Other Measures) Act 2023, and licensed companies that breach it can be fined up to A$247,500.

Why crypto became the rail

Bank transfer to an exchange

Convert to USDT or BTC

Send on to the casino wallet

Play at an international site

There are two main reasons most Australians reach for cryptocurrency at these casinos. The first is the ban above: credit and crypto are closed off at licensed Australian companies. The second is the banks; the four majors will not let residents use their credit cards to deposit into international gambling companies, and cryptocurrency does not run through the Australian banking system at all.

None of those laws or bans change the fact that the player's own actions are legal. The transfer is legal, holding crypto is legal, and playing is not an offence under the Interactive Gambling Act.

Tether (USDT) is used more than Bitcoin for casino play for reasons both financial and legal. As a stablecoin it holds its dollar value from the moment a player deposits until the winnings are withdrawn, and using it avoids much of the paperwork the government expects when a player wins.

Tax: winnings are free, crypto has a catch

The winnings from recreational gambling are not taxed in Australia; the ATO does not count them as income, for any amount won. Cryptocurrency winnings are the exception in one respect. The moment you win crypto, its cost base is set at the market value at that time, and when you later spend or sell those coins you incur capital gains tax on the difference. Hold them for a full year and you may qualify for the capital gains tax discount.

The winnings themselves are tax-free, but what you do with them afterwards may not be. Worked examples and the ATO's own wording are in our crypto gambling tax guide.

How Australia compares to other countries

Australia's stance on online gambling is out of step with most other wealthy, English-speaking countries. Great Britain has licensed and taxed online casinos for over two decades. Most Canadian provinces license them within their borders. New Zealand, whose laws long resembled Australia's, has legislated a licensing regime rather than keep prohibiting them. Australia alone maintains that no licence for online casinos exists, for operators or players.

At a licensed casino, a player has rights to resolve disputes, and the operator must follow specific rules on how it advertises. None of that extends to players at international casinos. The scale of what goes unprotected is large: Australians lose around A$31.5 billion a year on gambling, the highest per-capita figure in the world, and the international casinos are estimated to take several billion dollars of it.

Three myths worth killing

Is the law going to change?

No. Nobody in government has proposed licensing online casinos, and regulation has focused instead on restricting advertising and payments in the licensed sector. The statutory review of the credit and cryptocurrency ban is due after June 2026, and its likely outcomes are keeping the ban or extending it. So the future for online casino players stays much the same: restricted to international operators that are prohibited here but never punished for the play itself.

What this means for you in practice

• You commit no offence by playing, at a licensed bookmaker or at an international casino site.
• You give up Australian protections at international sites. No Australian regulator hears your complaint, and BetStop, the national self-exclusion register, only covers licensed wagering services.
• The site you use may get blocked. Expect mirror domains and address changes; it is enforcement against the operator, not you.
• Crypto winnings need records. Note the date and market value when winnings land, because later disposals are CGT events.
• Pick operators like the law will not help you, because it will not. Published terms, a named operator and a real licence number matter more here than anywhere else.

Reading a casino's legal status in sixty seconds

Because no online casino serving Australians is licensed here, the legal questions that matter come down to the operator's own paperwork. Four quick checks cover most of it:

1. Is a company named?

   Scroll the footer and the terms. A real operator names its legal entity; an anonymous one is asking for trust it has not earned.

2. Is a licence number published?

   "Licensed in Curacao" without a number is a claim, not a credential. Numbers can be checked against the issuing regulator.

3. Is the brand on ACMA's blocked list or in its findings?

   Both are public on acma.gov.au. A listing is not automatically disqualifying, most serious operators are on it, but a formal ACMA finding tells you the regulator proved the service targets Australians.

4. Does the site's own terms document restrict Australia?

   Some casinos accept Australian traffic while their terms quietly prohibit Australian players, which gives the operator a ready-made excuse to void winnings. We check this on every site we review, and it kills more candidates than any other test.

Sources

The primary sources for everything on this page and its related guides:

• Interactive Gambling Act 2001 (Cth), current compilation at legislation.gov.au
• ACMA, illegal online gambling and blocked-websites program at acma.gov.au
• Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts, interactive gambling policy and the credit ban, at infrastructure.gov.au
• Australian Taxation Office, crypto asset prizes and gambling winnings, at ato.gov.au
• Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, gambling in Australia, at aihw.gov.au

Is online gambling legal in Australia? FAQ