Online bookmakers licensed in Australia’s Northern Territory would face deposit caps for younger customers, an inducement ban and significantly higher penalties under a private member’s bill due to be introduced next week.
Independent Northern Territory MLA Justine Davis’s proposed legislation would cap monthly deposits at A$500 ($347.65) for customers aged 18 to 21 and A$1,000 ($695.30) for those aged 22 to 24. It would also ban inducements such as bonus bets and VIP schemes.
The Northern Territory licenses 50 online bookmakers, including Sportsbet, Ladbrokes and Bet365. The Territory’s regulator has become Australia’s de facto national watchdog for online bookmakers because of the number of operators licensed there.
The bill would also impose a “positive duty” on licensed bookmakers to take “all reasonable steps to prevent harm to customers”. The maximum disciplinary penalty would rise from A$194,000 to A$10 million (US$6.9 million), or 10% of annual revenue.
Davis said the federal government’s recent gambling reforms did not go far enough.
“We now are in a real position where we can actually show some leadership in the Northern Territory and say, ‘Here’s some simple changes that we can make,’” she said. “The changes are not going to stop gambling, but they are going to prevent harm being done to people, both here in the Territory and across Australia.”
The bill would also prohibit gambling advertisements that are “likely to be available to children” and introduce tighter conflict-of-interest requirements for members of the Northern Territory Wagering Commission (NTWC), including a public register of declared conflicts and a ban on accepting gifts from bookmakers.
The proposed reforms follow a 2023 federal inquiry that recommended establishing a national gambling regulator and banning inducements. Earlier this year, the NT government introduced rules preventing NTWC commissioners from owning racehorses or holding betting accounts with NT-licensed bookmakers.
The government also doubled the annual tax cap for NT-licensed gambling companies to A$3 million from A$1.5 million.
Support for Davis’s bill includes a letter signed by 33 advocacy organisations and leaders, including independent federal MP Andrew Wilkie.
Wilkie said the legislation “attempted to do what the federal government has so far failed to do”.
“It genuinely will go some considerable way to doing the federal government’s job, and it would put the Territory front and centre with reform that would trickle through the rest of the country,” he said. “It would make the Territory a national leader in this space.”
NT Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby said the government would “consider all sensible proposals on their merits.”
“But let me be clear: while we encourage all people to gamble responsibly, you can’t legislate personal responsibility,” she said.
Davis said she had been told by Shadow Racing Minister Chansey Paech that Labor would support the bill, while Labor backbencher Dheran Young said the party was “proud to support” it. However, Deputy Opposition Leader Ed Smelt said Labor wanted the bill referred to the NT Legislative Scrutiny Committee.
Davis is scheduled to introduce the bill in the Northern Territory parliament next Wednesday.