{"id":777049640,"date":"2026-11-11T08:56:14","date_gmt":"2026-11-11T11:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777049640"},"modified":"2026-11-11T08:56:32","modified_gmt":"2026-11-11T11:56:32","slug":"australia-online-betting-age-verification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/australia-online-betting-age-verification","title":{"rendered":"Australia urged to extend age checks to online betting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Gambling reform advocates say the Digital Duty of Care Bill overlooks how teenagers access betting websites and sports odds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Key takeaways:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Alliance for Gambling Reform wants online betting services explicitly included in Australia&#8217;s Digital Duty of Care Bill.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The current draft proposes age-verification requirements for pornography websites but does not specifically cover betting platforms.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Advocate Mark Kempster said three-quarters of 120 teenage boys at one school had placed a bet or looked up sports odds.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Kempster reported speaking to around 30 under-18s showing signs of gambling problems this year.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young argued that minors can access betting websites without the same website-level restrictions applied to pornography.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Australia.- Advocacy groups are urging Australian senators to <strong>extend age-verification requirements in the Digital Duty of Care Bill to online gambling services<\/strong>. They argue that the current draft leaves a clear gap for underage access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <strong>Alliance for Gambling Reform<\/strong> told a Senate committee reviewing the bill on Tuesday that online wagering should face the same age checks requirements that the draft legislation proposes for pornography sites. Alliance chief executive <strong>Sunita Bose<\/strong> said online wagering carries \u201cvery similar\u201d potential harms to pornography and should be regulated accordingly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt is a service that is permitted for adults, but we should be using the best possible technology to ensure that kids are not using it,\u201d she said. \u201cWe would like to see a levelling up of child protection by naming the (online betting) services in the Bill.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Greens senator <strong>Sarah Hanson-Young<\/strong> described underage online gambling as an \u201copen secret.\u201d \u201cThese are meant to be sites that are clearly for adults. The comparison between the restrictions around a porn site\u2026 is really quite stark,\u201d she said. \u201cWhile there may be some hoops to jump through to establish an online betting account, to actually access the website itself, unlike a porn site, there\u2019s no block if you\u2019re under 18.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Advocate and former problem gambler <strong>Mark Kempster<\/strong> said that three-quarters of 120 teenage boys at one high school he spoke at rose their hands when asked if they had placed a bet or looked up odds on a sporting event. He said he has spoken to about 30 under-18s this year who are showing signs of gambling problems. \u201cWith pornography, there are age restrictions you can see. There are no age restrictions around betting websites at all,\u201d Kempster said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Frequently asked questions (FAQs)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>What is Australia&#8217;s Digital Duty of Care Bill?<\/strong> It is proposed legislation aimed at imposing stronger responsibilities on digital platforms to address online harms, including age-verification requirements for websites providing adult content.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Will Australia&#8217;s proposed age-verification rules apply to online betting sites?<\/strong> Not under the current draft. The bill proposes age checks for pornography websites but does not explicitly name online betting platforms.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Why do gambling reform advocates want betting sites included in the bill?<\/strong> They argue that online betting presents risks to minors comparable to those associated with pornography and that website-level age restrictions are needed to prevent underage access.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>How common is underage exposure to online betting in Australian schools?<\/strong> Advocate Mark Kempster reported that three-quarters of 120 teenage boys at one high school had either placed a bet or searched for sports odds. He also said he had spoken to around 30 under-18s showing signs of gambling problems this year.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<div id=\"see-also-container\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"see-also-label\">See also:<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"related-article\">\n\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"related-article__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2022\/01\/1643034826australia-1-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"related-article__text\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"see-also-label-strong\">See also:<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/australian-gambling-reform-bill-set-for-possible-thursday-passage-after-labor-coalition-deal\">Australian gambling reform bill set for possible passage after Labor-Coalition deal<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gambling reform advocates say the Digital Duty of Care Bill overlooks how teenagers access betting websites and sports odds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":680,"featured_media":777009718,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Advocacy groups in Australia are urging the expansion of the Digital Duty of Care Bill to explicitly include online gambling services, mandating age-verification requirements akin to those proposed for pornography websites. They argue that the current draft overlooks significant underage access to betting platforms, posing comparable harms to minors. This legislative push highlights a critical gap in current regulatory frameworks concerning child protection in the digital wagering landscape.","focusai_entities":"Alliance for Gambling Reform, Mark Kempster, Sarah Hanson-Young, Greens, Sunita Bose","focusai_location":"Australia","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (0.95), product_ux (0.9), tech_data (0.9), marketing_crm (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (0.75), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.85), journalist_researcher (0.95)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Regulatory Scope Expansion","query":"What are the projected operational and technological costs for licensed iGaming operators in Australia if the Digital Duty of Care Bill is amended to include explicit age-verification mandates for online wagering platforms?"},{"label":"Impact on B2B Suppliers","query":"How might the potential inclusion of online gambling in Australia's Digital Duty of Care Bill stimulate demand for advanced age-verification and identity management solutions from B2B technology suppliers?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,154],"tags":[25352,289,225],"class_list":["post-777049640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-legislation-news","tag-age-limit","tag-australia","tag-legislation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777049640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/680"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777049640"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777049640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777049643,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777049640\/revisions\/777049643"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777009718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777049640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777049640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777049640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}