Kindred was fined $63 million by the Norwegian regulator in September. The Norwegian Gambling Authority then increased the penalty to $170,000 a day in December. However, this decision was reversed after Unibet “adapted” its operations in the country, a Kindred spokesperson said at the time.

Kindred and Entain, which owns Responsible Wagering Australia members Ladbrokes and Neds, were found to have illegally accepted Dutch bettors before online gambling became legal in the Netherlands in 2021, and were prevented from holding a licence until 2022 as a result.

Austria’s Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that Flutter – the owner of Sportsbet – had been operating casino websites illegally, prompting local gamblers to launch legal action against the giant in an attempt to recoup their losses. There is no evidence to suggest the decisions of the foreign outfits have any correlation with the decisions of their licensed Australian businesses. Entain recently committed to exit all unregulated markets so that 100 per cent of its revenue would come from regulated sectors by the end of this year.

Leading gambling researcher Professor Charles Livingstone, of Monash University, accused the industry of overstating the threat of offshore wagering to deflect attention away from itself. He called for an international regulator to be established to constrict illegal operators instead of allowing locally licensed providers access to provide the banned services.

“The industry tries to use offshore gambling as a way to deflect away from its own misdemeanours, particularly given many of their principals are people providing this illegal gambling elsewhere,” Livingstone said. “That’s not to diminish the seriousness of it, it needs to be addressed. But there are ways of doing so without giving the current industry carte blanche to do what they like.”

The Australian online gambling market reached $6.8 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow by 7 per cent over the next five years. A recent survey from the Australian Gambling Research Centre found about three-quarters of Australian adults gambled at least once over the past 12 months, and almost two in five gambled weekly. A 2019 gambling survey in NSW found two of the least prevalent forms of gambling were betting on online poker and online casino games, with less than 0.5 per cent of the adult population in the state taking part. Almost one in five, or 19 per cent, reported participating in online gambling.

Responsible Wagering Australia chief Kai Cantwell said last week it was important any future online gambling reform considered the potential for punters to seek out illegal operators as a result. The comments followed Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s assertion that gambling advertisements in sport should be further restricted.

Cantwell said: “It is crucial that any future reforms are balanced and prevent Australian players from being driven offshore, where player protections are limited.”

“Additionally, failure to maintain a sustainably regulated sports betting market could result in a significant loss of economic benefits to the Australian economy, as well as to the sporting, racing, and broadcasting industries.”

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Financial Counselling Australia’s Lauren Levin disagreed with Cantwell, and said the issue of unlicensed gambling providers was dwarfed by the need to better protect Australians gambling legally from harm. She argued Australia’s consumer protection gambling policy should not focus on the unregulated operators but on a policy agenda centred on preventing consumer harm, particularly for young people.

“In financial counselling casework, we observe that the dominant harm comes from those licensed in Australia [who can advertise heavily]. We observe only a very small amount of gambling with the unregulated, overseas operators. And this is no more harmful than gambling with a licensed provider – money is lost both ways.”

She said Australian regulators should work with their overseas counterparts to control illegal operators as the bulk of the unlicensed operators that target Australians hold licences abroad.

“Our regulators need the right powers. In practice, gambling consumer protection is very low in Australia. It’s a largely self-serving argument when the industry cites offshore wagering in an attempt to prevent future regulation and regulators should not focus on it,” Levin said.

“All they are saying is ‘government look over there, keep yourself busy with anything other than looking at what we’re doing right now to Australians’.”

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