Proposed amendments to the Betting and Racing Regulation and the definition of an inducement

The Betting and Racing Regulation 2012 (NSW) (Betting and Racing Regulation) and Totalizator Regulation 2012 (NSW) will be repealed on 1 September 2022.

In anticipation of the expiration of these regulations, Liquor and Gaming NSW (L&GNSW) have released the following draft regulations for consideration and feedback:

• Draft Betting and Racing Regulation 2022; and
• Draft Totalizator Regulation 2022.

Overview of proposed amendments to Betting and Racing Regulation

By way of summary, the draft proposed amendments to the Betting and Racing Regulation include:

• prescribing persons or bodies as sports controlling bodies for sporting events;
• changes that a sports controlling body must inform the Minister of;
• regulating specific race field information use approvals from the relevant racing control body to betting services providers;
• regulating responsible gambling practices;
• prescribing fees payable under the Betting and Racing Act 1998 (NSW) (the Act);
• providing exemptions from an offence regarding online access to unauthorised gambling operations or information about unauthorised gambling operations for a person who is a member of the Communications Alliance;
• declaring that certain offers are prohibited inducements;
• prescribing offences for which the court can impose certain remedial orders for a person found guilty of an offence;
• including requirements imposed on a sports controlling body which enters into specific integrity agreements; and
• adding offences under the Gaming and Liquor Administration Act 2007 (NSW), the Act and the regulation in circumstances where penalty notices may be issued and amounts payable.

Amendments to the definition of an inducement

An interesting proposed change to the Betting and Racing Regulation is the amendment to the definition of an inducement.

Currently, section 33GA(1) of the Act defines an inducement as including:

1. ‘the offer of a credit, voucher, reward or other benefit’; or
2. ‘the offer of a gambling product, or the offer of a condition or other aspect of a gambling product, that includes additional benefits or enhancements; or
3. ‘the offer of a gambling product, or the offer of a condition or other aspect of a gambling product that is declared by the regulations to be a prohibited inducement’.

The draft regulation proposes to declare the following offers as prohibited inducements in accordance with section 33GA(1)(c):

• ‘free entry into competition, tournament or other event for a person who has a betting account’;
• ‘a free gambling product as an inducement to open a betting account’; and
• ‘the offer of odds for combining gambling products if the odds are also available from the betting service provider at a lower price’. For example, ‘a person is offered artificially inflated odds for promotional purpose’.

If this amendment is adopted, it will be the first time that the Betting and Racing Regulation declares specific examples of offers that are prohibited inducements, which may assist with making the regulatory landscape around inducements clearer.

If you found this insight article useful and you would like to subscribe to Gadens’ updates, click here.

Authored by: 

Simon Theodore, Partner
Matthew Lunney, Senior Associate
Sharna White, Lawyer