The Australian government says: ‘If you do not want to see gambling ads online, you will not have to’. From 1 January 2027, all online services must provide an opt-out function for gambling ads. Photograph: Westend61/Getty Images View image in fullscreen The Australian government says: ‘If you do not want to see gambling ads online, you will not have to’. From 1 January 2027, all online services must provide an opt-out function for gambling ads. Photograph: Westend61/Getty Images Gambling Explainer Australians could soon be able to block all online gambling ads. But will the plan actually work? The goal is for anyone to be able to put their name, email address or phone number on the register and never see any gambling ads on any online
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Prefer the Guardian on Google Australians will, within 12 months, be able to opt-out of all online gambling ads in one fell swoop, with the federal government pledging a one-stop register to avoid all wagering advertisements online.
In the meantime, from 1 January, all online services must provide an opt-out function if they want to display gambling ads. But little is known about how the one-stop opt-out register will operate, with questions about data privacy and how exactly people will be able to use it.
The Labor government long promised action on online ads as part of its gambling reforms . It initially proposed a “triple lock” system which mandated any online platform showing gambling ads to provide an opt-out button (more on that below).
But late in the process, after negotiations with the Coalition, on Monday the communications minister, Anika Wells, announced a new opt-out register. She described it as a “a ‘one-stop shop’ to opt out of seeing wagering advertising on online platforms”.
It came after concerns people would find it difficult to opt-out of gambling ads on each individual website, so a central opt-out service was announced instead.
The government’s legislation leaves the details about how the register will work to the Australian Communications and Media Authority, which is responsible for designing, implementing and enforcing the register.
But Guardian Australia understands it is envisaged that any person would be able to put their name, email address or phone number on the register, and elect to never see any gambling ads on any online service, including streaming platforms, online banner ads or podcasts. Platforms would have to scrape the register every 14 days to check that their users have not opted out of gambling ads.
ACMA will develop the register over the next 12 months.
On Thursday, Wells likened the register to the Do Not Call list for spam phone calls, or the BetStop system for problem gamblers to avoid wagering promotions.
She said: “If you do not want to see gambling ads online, you will not have to.”
Asked in a press conference if the system could make it so difficult for online platforms to comply, that they may decide not to show any gambling ads at all, Wells replied: “What a great outcome that would be.”
Wells said she was confident because the government had previously built BetStop and other platforms.
“We have built similar things before, and we believe it’s possible … we know how to do it now,” she said.
But the proposed register would be more complicated, in that platforms would have to specifically carve out gambling ads from certai…