Australia finds Tabcorp guilty of illegal gambling ads

Sydney’s local court found the operator guilty of three counts for running illegal gambling ads in 2015.

Australia.- Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court found gambling company Tabcorp guilty of running ads luring clients to open new accounts. According to Skynews, the promotion was published in both online and in paper in a newspaper in August 2015.

The promotion offered consumers bonus bets and other rewards as a way of encouragement for signing up in their platform. The New South Wales law establishes that bookmakers cannot publish the ads as an attempt to influence gamblers to play or open new betting accounts. Despite denying the charges, Tabcorp was found guilty of three counts in Sydney’s court and will face the sentence in February 2017.

This sentence is part of a series of measurements against a significant number of major companies such as Ladbrokes, Bet365 and sportsbetting.com.au. All of these brands were found guilty for similar charges. Last month, the national Advertising Standards Board (ASB) announced the decision of ending the transmission of Tabcorp’s publicity as it boosted the sector by considering “fun” and “sociable” to lie to the family about gambling problems. The advertising also “glamorised” the activities and presented them as a pleasure of a weekend.

Australia is going through several changes in its gambling industry, as authorities already banned several online activities, such as in-play betting services and introduced legislation to extend the power of ACMA, Australian Communications and Media Authority, against the companies. The new laws propose the creation of a National team which will receive complaints about the provision and advertising by gaming suppliers.