Now lawMoney & Tax Introduced in the House of Representatives, 17 Aug 2026

Online betting firms now pay for new ad rules

Licensed online betting companies must now pay back what the media watchdog spends on two new things. One is new limits on betting bonuses. The other is a new list where people can sign up to stop betting ads.

Official name: Interactive Gambling (Cost Recovery Levy) Bill 2026

Who it affects

• Licensed online betting companies: They must pay a levy each year. It covers the watchdog's costs of checking the new betting ad rules.
• The Australian Communications and Media Authority: This is the media and phone watchdog. It gets a way to win back what it spends on the new rules and the opt-out list.
• People who bet online: Nothing changes for them under this law. The rules it pays for are in a separate law.
• Taxpayers: The betting industry carries the cost of these new rules.

New betting rules cost money

In 2026 Parliament passed a big gambling law. Its full name is the Interactive Gambling Amendment (Gambling Reform) Act 2026. It added new rules to the Interactive Gambling Act 2001. That is the main law for online gambling.

Two of those new rules cost money to run. Part 7D limits inducements. An inducement is a bonus or special offer to get people to bet, like free bets or bonus cash.

Part 7E sets up the Wagering Advertising Opt-out Register. Wagering means betting. This is one list where you can sign up to stop getting betting ads from online services.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority runs these rules. It is the media and phone watchdog. It also watches online gambling. This law lets it charge a levy to get its money back. A levy is a charge that a group of businesses must pay.

Who has to pay

The levy falls on any company that ran a licensed online betting service during a levy period. That means an online betting company with an Australian state or territory licence. One example is an app that takes bets on sport or racing.

If a company ran those services for even part of the period, it owes levy for that period. The company that ran the betting service is the one that must pay.

The government says the betting industry created the need for these new rules. So it should carry the cost. This follows the government's own rules on charging for its work. They say the businesses that cause a rule to be needed should usually pay for it.

How much they pay

The law does not set a dollar amount. The watchdog will write the formula in detailed rules. Parliament can still check and cancel those rules.

The watchdog must talk to the Minister before it sets the formula. The government says it left the formula open because the watchdog does not yet know its full costs.

Levy periods follow the financial year. The first period runs from the day the law started until the next 30 June. After that, each period runs from 1 July to 30 June.

A cap on the total

The total levy for a period cannot be more than the watchdog's costs. Those costs come in three parts.

The first is the cost of running the opt-out list in that period. This covers payments to the company that runs the list. It covers the watchdog's own costs to manage the list, watch over it and make people follow it. It also covers buying the list and getting it ready, even if no deal with a company is ever signed.

The second is what the watchdog spends checking the new limits on betting bonuses under Part 7D.

The third is a share of the watchdog's up-front costs to set up the list before it opens. Costs are counted the normal business way, called accrual accounting.

Say the watchdog spends $1 million on the list and $500,000 on checking bonuses in one year. The betting companies together could be charged up to $1.5 million that year. They could also pay a share of the set-up costs.

Sharing the setup cost

Building the list will cost money before it opens. To stop a huge bill in one year, the watchdog can spread these set-up costs over two or more years in a row.

The watchdog picks a percentage for each of those years. The percentages can be different each year. But they cannot add up to more than 100 per cent. So the set-up cost can only be charged once.

The watchdog must talk to the Minister first. These choices go on the Federal Register of Legislation, the public list of all national laws. Parliament can cancel them.

Where the law applies

The law applies inside and outside Australia. It also covers Australia's small territories outside the mainland, such as Norfolk Island in the Pacific.

State and territory governments must follow it. The national government itself does not have to.

The rules for collecting the levy, such as due dates and late fees, sit in the 2026 gambling law. They are in Part 7F of the Interactive Gambling Act.

Start date

The government brought the bill into the House of Representatives on 17 August 2026. The House passed it the next day. The Senate, Parliament's second house, passed it on 19 August 2026.

The Governor-General, the King's representative, signed it into law on 26 August 2026. It became Act No. 73 of 2026. It started the day after it was signed. Its partner, the 2026 gambling law, was signed on the same day.

How they voted

Its journey through Parliament

Official sources

• Bill page on aph.gov.au
• Text of the bill
• Explanatory memorandum

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