Australian gamblers to be banned from using credit cards for online betting
Gamblers will soon be barred from using credit cards for online betting, with the federal government to introduce new legislation banning the payment method within months.
The changes will implement recommendations of a parliamentary inquiry from 2021, which called for the ban, a trend estimated to make up to 20% of deposits into wagering accounts.
“People should not be betting with money they do not have,” the communications minister, Michelle Rowland, said.
In an announcement to be made on Friday, Rowland and social the services minister, Amanda Rishworth, will bring online gambling into line with “land-based gambling”, which already limits the use of credit cards.
The exact mechanism and technical implementation will be decided through consultation with stakeholders, but the government plans to use Bank Identification Numbers (BINs) used to identify and block credit card payments. This would bar credit card numbers from being used to deposit funds into betting accounts.
“Blocking BINs has been successfully deployed by Australian casinos and poker machine venues to stop credit card withdrawals from ATMs and was used in the United Kingdom to implement its credit card ban for online gambling,” Rowland and Rishworth said.
The ban will be enacted through amendments to the Interactive Gambling Act 2001, which the government says will be introduced later this year and see the Australian Communications and Media Authority get enhanced powers of enforcement.
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“Minimising this harm is not a set and forget exercise. Bringing online wagering into line with land‑based gambling, where credit cards cannot be used, is another
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