Australia’s House of Representatives passed the bill last month, allowing it to progress to the Senate. Yesterday (6 December), the Senate also approved the legislation, clearing the way for it to pass into law.
The country already has a ban in place on gambling with credit cards at land-based venues. This means the bill effectively places a blanket ban on credit card gambling across Australia.
The bill implements recommendations set out by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services from November 2021. However, efforts to outlaw credit card use in online gambling have been ongoing for some time.
In December 2019, the Australian Banking Association hosted a consultation on credit cards in gambling. The initiative ran to March 2020 and also looked at how banks can help better protect players.
Calls for a ban grew louder in spring 2020 when Great Britain introduced a ban on credit card gambling.
Against this background, certain parties chose to effectively jump the gun and put in place their own bans. This included consumer-owned banking group Bank Australia, which in October 2021 announced account holders could no longer to use its credit cards to fund gambling.
Aside from a ban on credit products, the bill features several other related measures. These include fines of up to AU$234,750 (£122,475/€143,003/US$154,282) for operators that do not enforce the ban.
The bill also grants new powers to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). Such powers include enforcing new and existing penalty provisions and taking responsibility for issuing penalties to those breaching the ban.
However, the bill will not come into effect immediately. The Australia government previously said it would run a six-month transition period to allow operators, payment providers and consumers to move in line with the new rules. This period will begin once the bill receives royal assent.
