Australia’s largest betting agency has been fined $4.6 million (US$3.1 million) and put on notice by a gambling watchdog after it was busted breaching licence and gambling rules.
A Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission investigation exposed Tabcorp for repeated breaches of its betting licence and the responsible gambling code between August 2020 and February 2023.
In one instance, a Tabcorp account manager placed a “responsible gambling call” to the customer whose betting patterns were flagged by its own monitoring systems.
The punter had lost $135,000 (US$90,800) within the space of a month following a large volume of bets.
The October 2022 call ended with the manager communicating that a deposit-match promotion of $2000 (US$1346) would be allocated to the customer’s account.
The incident was indicative of a culture of Tabcorp not taking seriously its harm minimisation obligations, commission chair Fran Thorn said.
“The recorded call provides evidence of a lack of commitment to responsible gambling policies and demonstrates a lack of concern for the customer’s wellbeing,” she said.
“Instead of offering support or making suggestions to help the customer manage their gambling, the call was used as an opportunity to encourage them to continue gambling.”
In total, the customer was contacted with promotional offers six times between October 2022 and February 2023 despite asking to opt-out of receiving such material when reopening their account in August 2020.
It wasn’t until May 2023 that the customer’s account was closed again.
Other alleged breaches were failing to provide appropriate support to a customer exhibiting observable signs of distress or indicators of potential gambling harm, and failing to minimise the potential for gambling harm through inadequate training of staff.
While Tabcorp co-operated with the investigation, Thorn said the breaches reflected systemic operational deficiencies and non-compliance with its licence conditions and resulted in “significant harm” to a customer.
“The hefty fine, the largest the commission has ever issued to Tabcorp, is proportionate to the seriousness of the licensee’s misconduct,” she said.
“It sends a clear message to the gambling industry that this kind of behaviour is not acceptable and will not be tolerated.”
The $4.6 million fine was half of the maximum penalty the regulator could have meted out.
In December, Tabcorp paid the Victorian government $600 million (US$404 million) up front to secure a 20-year extension to its exclusive wagering licence.
Senior Victorian minister Danny Pearson said the penalty sent a signal to Tabcorp’s leadership, under new chief executive Gillon McLachlan, that the behaviour would not be tolerated.
“I don’t think any company that I have ever known is happy about copping a multi-million-dollar fine,” he told reporters.
Tabcorp has been directed to clean up its act, with the watchdog vowing to actively monitor the implementation and effectiveness of a new program to overhaul its operations.
In a statement, Tabcorp acknowledged the fine but did not say whether it would challenge its severity.
“The harm minimisation measures in place by Tabcorp at the time did not meet community or regulatory expectations, nor did it meet the expectations that current management expect of the company and its people,” the company said.
“Tabcorp has since taken significant steps to improve customer safety, including restructuring the safer gambling team which has led to an increase in customer interventions.”
