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Credit and crypto banThe Interactive Gambling Act 2001 (the IGA) is the Commonwealth legislation relating to gambling that occurs over the internet. It was passed in 2001, when online casinos were still a novelty to most Australians, but it has outlasted almost every technological change since, mainly because it only ever regulated the suppliers of those betting services rather than the customers who used them.
How this page works
This page covers the Act itself and its provisions, along with its amendments and how it is enforced. All of it is derived from the Act or from the official explanatory materials published by the Commonwealth government. This is general information, not legal advice.
What the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 prohibits
Section 15 of the Act states that it is illegal for any person to intentionally provide, to a customer physically present in Australia, any "prohibited interactive gambling service". A prohibited interactive gambling service is one that offers the following to those customers:
- Online casino games: pokies, blackjack, roulette, baccarat and the rest
- Online poker played for money
- Live dealer casino games
- In-play (live) sports betting online
- Betting on the outcome of a lottery
The second offence, section 15AA, makes it illegal to offer wagering products to the public without an Australian licence, unless another Act of Parliament already provides for them. Between them, the two offences split the online gambling market in two: licensed bookmakers may operate, and every other casino-style site is prohibited.
What the Act permits
The carve-outs
The Act is essentially a prohibition on online gambling, with a few exceptions. Wagering on sports and racing placed before the event begins is permitted for operators holding an Australian licence, which is why licensed betting apps exist. Online lotteries and keno-type services are permitted to operate online too. Every other form of casino-style gambling is prohibited.
The in-play trap
It is legal for individuals to bet on a sporting match before it starts. A bet placed after the match has begun, though, cannot be offered online, and is only legal by telephone or in person. That rule has been in the Act since it passed in 2001, and has survived every amendment since, including the "click-to-call" workaround the 2017 amendment shut down.
Four definitions that do the work
Most online gambling companies are licensed somewhere like Curacao or Macau, but the Act defines a prohibited service by where the customer sits, not where the company that offers the bets is based.
Who the Act punishes, and how hard
Companies that breach the Act face civil penalties, and the size of those penalties is meant to frighten the companies, not individual customers. Providing a prohibited interactive gambling service to an Australian customer exposes an operator to maximum penalties of around $360,000 per day for an individual found to have provided it, or around $1.8 million per day for a corporation. A fresh contravention is committed on every single day the service stays available, so a company that ignores the Act for a month is, on paper, accruing a nine-figure exposure.
The Act also makes it illegal for any person to be "knowingly concerned in" providing a prohibited interactive gambling service. That part of the Act has been used against the executives of the companies behind those services, and more recently against the websites that promote them for free.
In practice, the penalties have never been collected from any company. A firm with no Australian-based assets can be penalised on paper and still walk away, which is why enforcement of the Act has shifted toward blocking websites rather than prosecuting the companies that run them.
What the Act says about players: nothing
Search the Act for any provision aimed at players and you will not find one. It is not an offence for a player to place bets on an international online betting site: no fine has ever been assessed against a player, and no player has ever been prosecuted for it under the Act.
For players, the consequence is a market that is prohibited and available at the same time: the companies offering the games are breaking the Act, but the players accepting those bets are doing nothing wrong. The catch is that the Act does nothing for players while they are at those sites either, something we discuss in our grey market guide.
The 2017 amendment: closing the loopholes
For the first sixteen years of the Act's existence there were no prosecutions. The offences existed on paper, but nothing enforced them; doing so would have meant prosecuting companies that had no presence in Australia at all.
The Interactive Gambling Amendment Act 2017 changed the economics of the Act. It made clear that operators without an Australian licence could not let their services reach Australians, eliminated the "click-to-call" workaround that had let players place in-play bets, and handed the government real powers to enforce the Act against these companies. PokerStars, 888 and other major international poker and casino companies all left the Australian market during 2017. Around 220 operators have exited the country since, though the exact number is debated, and the gap they left is now filled by the newer generation of international crypto casinos.
The 2023 amendment: credit cards and crypto
The Interactive Gambling Amendment (Credit and Other Measures) Act 2023 introduced section 15C(1A). From 11 June 2024, a licensed Australian wagering service commits an offence if it accepts payment from a customer by credit card, by a digital wallet linked to a credit card, or by digital currency. The point of the rule is to stop people gambling with money they cannot afford to lose; crypto was banned alongside credit cards because it too can be bought on credit.
Who it binds
This provision relates only to licensed Australian wagering services. International gambling services are already prohibited from serving Australians outright, so the 2023 amendment has nothing left to ban for them. The full story behind the 2023 Act is in our credit card and crypto ban explainer.
The Interactive Gambling Act 2001 in one table
| Passed | 2001 (Commonwealth) |
|---|---|
| Core offence | s 15: providing prohibited interactive gambling services to customers in Australia |
| Second offence | s 15AA: providing regulated wagering services without an Australian licence |
| Payment offence | s 15C(1A): licensed services accepting credit cards or digital currency (from 11 June 2024) |
| Maximum penalties | ~$360,000/day individuals; ~$1.8 million/day corporations, per day of contravention |
| Player offence | None. The Act creates no offence for customers |
| Enforcer | ACMA (civil penalties, warnings, ISP blocking since November 2019) |
| Major amendments | 2017 (enforcement teeth, loophole closures); 2023 (credit and crypto ban) |
The advertising rules
The Act also makes it illegal to advertise a prohibited interactive gambling service in Australia, and the 2023 reforms tightened the messaging rules for licensed wagering as well, retiring the old "gamble responsibly" line in favour of rotating, evidence-based warnings drawn from research into gambling harm. On the illegal side, that advertising ban is why the ACMA blocks the promotional and affiliate sites around these casinos, not just the casinos themselves: promoting a prohibited service counts as helping to provide it.
How the Act is actually enforced
The Act's enforcement runs through investigations: the ACMA investigates a prohibited service, names it in a formal finding, and requires Australian internet providers to block it. Since November 2019 it has published a running list of around 1,708 gambling and affiliate websites found to be providing prohibited services to Australians, as of May 2026. Its findings have named long lists of the companies serving the Australian public, and the register of blocked sites is public.
Investigations into licensed bookmakers have exposed breaches on the other side too. Household-name bookmakers have been found in breach of the Act for limiting players' ability to self-exclude, offering credit without proper authorisation, and accepting credit payments from those players. The full list of the bodies that regulate gambling in Australia is set out in who regulates gambling in Australia.
What the Act does not cover
The Act applies to gambling services, but similar content inside video games has grown up outside it. Loot boxes and social casino apps, where you cannot win real prizes, fall under the classification system rather than gambling law, and since September 2024 games that contain gambling elements must carry an appropriate classification. That system is separate from the Interactive Gambling Act. It makes the line clear: a social pokies app that pays out nothing is not illegal gambling, while a real-money one is prohibited by the Act.
What the IGA means for a crypto casino player
- The site you play at is breaking Australian law by serving you; you are breaking none by playing.
- No Australian licence for online casino games exists, so any site claiming one is lying. Real operators name a foreign licence, and our reviews check whether they do.
- Expect blocked domains and mirrors; it is the enforcement mechanism working as designed.
- The Act's silence on players is not protection. Disputes with an international operator are resolved under its licence, not under Australian law.
Sources
- Interactive Gambling Act 2001 (Cth), current compilation: legislation.gov.au
- ACMA, interactive gambling and blocked websites: acma.gov.au
- Department of Infrastructure, interactive gambling policy: infrastructure.gov.au
Interactive Gambling Act 2001 FAQ
Does the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 make online pokies illegal?
It makes it illegal for any company to offer online pokies to customers physically in Australia, but it does not make it illegal for those customers to play at the sites. Any online pokies site accepting Australians is an international operator acting against the Act.
Has anyone been prosecuted under the IGA?
The penalties fall on the providers of these websites and companies, not on the players. No player has ever been prosecuted under the Act; enforcement has been civil, through penalties, warnings and website blocking.
Why does Australia ban online casinos but allow online betting?
When the Act was written in 2001, the intention was to let customers bet online on sports and racing before the event, while prohibiting money bets on casino-type games. That line has held ever since.
Did the IGA ban cryptocurrency gambling?
Section 15C(1A) of the 2023 amendment, in force from 11 June 2024, banned digital currency at licensed Australian wagering services. Since international casinos were never licensed here in the first place, crypto betting from Australia now happens only at those international sites.
What is an "Australian-customer link"?
The Act's jurisdiction applies whenever a service is provided to a customer physically present in Australia. The location of the company providing it does not matter; it is the customer's physical location that establishes the company is breaching Australian law.