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New gambling legislation is in force in the Northern Territory, Australia’s online gambling regulatory hub, which increases penalties, toughens licensing criteria and forms a new regulator.
The came into force on Monday (July 1), replacing the Racing and Betting Act 1983 and expanding online gambling provisions, after four years of government preparation and legislative passage in March.
Consistent with a wave of reforms across Australian states, the Northern Territory legislation aggressively increases maximum penalties for breaches by five times to 2,500 penalty units, or around A$440,000 ($296,000) per breach.
However, this amount is well below the maximum fine of 10,000 penalty units, or A$1.75m per breach, which the government proposed at the outset of the legislative review.
Reflecting the centrality of online gambling to territory gaming operations, the new six-member regulator has been named the Northern Territory Racing and Wagering Commission (NTRWC), replacing the Northern Territory Racing Commission.
All matters before the outgoing regulator will transfer to the NTRWC under the clauses of the expired Racing and Betting Act, including licence validity and pending licence applications, according to the act and the government’s explanatory memorandum.
Licences and renewed licences are valid for a maximum of 20 years, while “key personal licences” awarded to individuals have been eased to five-year instead of annual renewals.
Licensees are also required to pay a monthly levy into a new Racing and Wagering Fund, derived from “0.05 percent of the difference between the total wagers (excluding free or bonus wagers) and the aggregate winnings, less allowed deductions”, the Addisons law firm wrote in a summary of changes on Monday.
That deduction claim is capped at A$250,000.
Meanwhile, licence application fees and annual licence fees are both A$28,200, minus A$200 for renewals, and a security payment of A$250,000 must be made.
A tax rate of 5 percent, capped at A$1.41m per year, will apply to the difference between total wagers and payouts.
The replacement of gambling legislation and the regulator follows other tighter regulatory initiatives from the Northern Territory government, as well as calls from interstate to replace regional gambling regulation with a national online gambling regulator.
Such a move would cut significantly into the Northern Territory’s tax revenue and local economy, given that it hosts around half of all of Australia’s corporate bookmakers.
The most significant of these calls for a national regulator has come from the same federal parliamentary committee that also unanimously recommended a phased full ban on gambling advertising.
The federal Labor government is yet to respond to these recommendations, much to the annoyance of anti-gambling activists such as the Alliance for Gambling Reform.
The Alliance for Gambling Reform took aim at the Northern Territory’s Labor government in March, ahead of the passage of the new law, for undertaking extensive consultation with the gambling industry but very limited consultation with responsible gambling advocates over the future law.
