Tabcorp fined (again) for violating NSW gambling ad rules

Australian lottery and betting operator Tabcorp Holdings has been fined (again) for breaking New South Wales rules on inducing state residents to gamble.

Late last week, Sydney’s Downing Center Local Court issued an AU$30k (US$22k) penalty against Tabcorp for breaching NSW regulations that make it an offence to publish gambling ads that include “any inducement to participate, or participate frequently, in any gambling activity (including an inducement to open a betting account).”

Liquor & Gaming NSW opened an investigation last December after learning that a Tabcorp customer had received an ad from the company via his Instagram account. The ad was part of an Instagram Stories campaign Tabcorp ran over two days in December 2019.

Liquor & Gaming NSW subsequently discovered that 900 NSW residents who’d closed their Tabcorp accounts were also targeted by this campaign. Tabcorp blamed the mistake on human error, but Magistrate Erin Kennedy concluded that it was likely that at least some of these 900 customers had closed their accounts due to problems controlling their gambling, making their targeting extremely inappropriate regardless of the excuse.