AUSTRALIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Jamie Nettleton, Samuel Gauci and James Dommett, Addisons
spending limits between December 2023 and 21 July 2024; and • ten individuals who accessed casino poker machines using player cards linked to YourPlay accounts that were not registered under their legal names, during the period from 23 December 2023 to 4 August 2024. Since September 2025, Victoria has been trialling mandatory account-based play in 43 venues with gaming machines across Monash, Greater Dande- nong and Ballarat. Scheduled to conclude in Novem- ber 2025, this trial represents the initial stage of a broader roll-out of carded play on gaming machines across Victoria. Western Australia Update The Western Australia government introduced amend- ments to its gambling laws to increase the enforce- ment powers of the gambling regulator upon Crown and operators who fail to comply with gambling laws and directions issued by the gambling regulator. The amendments were introduced in February 2025 following the findings and recommendations of the Perth Casino Royal Commission, which was con- ducted in 2022. NZ Update The NZ government announced in July 2024 that it proposed to introduce laws that will result in the licensing of online casino operators to provide ser- vices to customers in NZ. The NZ Online Casino Bill was tabled in the NZ Par- liament in June 2025, and (at the date of writing this chapter) is due for its Second Reading in the NZ Par- liament following the presentation of the report by the Select Committee on 4 December 2025. The NZ Online Casino Bill and the recommendations proposed in the Select Committee’s report confirm the following. • It will be illegal to provide online casino services to customers in NZ without the appropriate licence granted by the Secretary of Internal Affairs (the “Secretary”).
• The licence will be specific to the provision of online casino games. • The number of licences that will be granted will be capped at 15. • A three-stage process will be adopted to allocate the licences: (a) an expression of interest to participate in the competitive process for a licence; (b) the competitive process for those operators whose expression of interest was accepted; and (c) the licence application process for those op- erators that would be notified by the Secretary that they may apply for a licence following the competitive process. • The term of the licence will be three years, with a right to renew for a further five years. • Online casino services cannot be provided legally to customers located in NZ after 1 December 2026, unless the relevant operator has either been granted a licence by the Secretary or has applied for a licence following the notification from the Secretary. • An increased focus on community contributions by licensed online casino operators. This focus will include an increase in the offshore gambling duty (details in the following) and the requirement to dis- close proposed community contributions as part of the licence application process. • Increased harm minimisation measures will be required, including establishing regulations for a national self-exclusion register by 1 December 2027, specifying requirements relating to mes- saging and information that must be displayed by licensed online casino operators, and to allow deposit limits to be set by customers. Subject to the parliamentary process, the NZ Online Casino Bill is anticipated to come into effect on 1 May 2026, while the online casino licences will be issued with effect from 1 December 2026. Prior to the NZ Online Casino Bill being tabled, the Department of Internal Affairs conducted targeted consultation in relation to various matters that will be addressed in regulations. These include harm mini- misation and consumer protection, advertising and
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