Online betting operator PlayUp Interactive has been fined more than half a million dollars for offering free bets and reportedly enticing people to gamble. The betting agency has sponsored the Wests Tigers NRL team since 2022 when it signed on as a premier partner for four years.
The record penalty was handed to PlayUp Interactive, which trades as Draftstars, on August 12 after Liquor and Gaming NSW found 33 illegal advertisements on the company’s website that included inducements to participate, or participate frequently, in gambling.
In NSW, offering enticements to open betting accounts or refer friends to do so is illegal. A maximum penalty of $110,000 applies to any corporation and $11,000 to individuals who publish prohibited gambling advertising.
Liquor and Gaming NSW director compliance and enforcement Dimitri Argeres said it was the responsibility of the betting service provider to make sure their gambling advertising didn’t cross a legal line. “Wagering operators like PlayUp Interactive are able to legally advertise their products in a variety of ways, but they can’t advertise or promote inducements such as offers of increased odds or bonus bets to entice people to open a betting account”.
“Liquor and Gaming NSW will continue to take a zero-tolerance approach to these offences, and this sentence shows that strong penalties can apply,” said Argeres.
PlayUp’s logo appears in large print on the rear of the Wests Tigers jerseys and training shirts. In addition to having branding on game day signage and apparel, PlayUp also has naming rights to Wests Tigers Field Club at CommBank Stadium, as well as match day activations and digital advertising across eDMs, website and social channels.
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The news comes amidst a crackdown on gambling advertising surrounding live sports. Latest reports suggest that the Labor government is considering caps on advertising of this nature with two gambling ads per hour on each channel up until 10 p.m. and a ban on ads of this nature before and after live sports coverage being proposed. Despite this action, Labor and Coalition MPs are doubling down the pressure on the Albanese government to impose a blanket ban on gambling advertising.
If the Labor government were to impose these caps, it would risk backlash from community campaigners and its own backbenchers, who want it to impose the total ban recommended last year by a bipartisan committee led by late Labor MP Peta Murphy, who declared that partial bans would not work after a surge in online bets to about $10 billion a year.
Labor MP Mike Freelander, who is also a doctor in western Sydney, has said that the surge in gambling advertising is compounding the financial hardship in Australian households at an already difficult time. “It’s a way of transferring billions of dollars from poor people to wealthy people”.
“I strongly believe the only thing we should be doing is a total ban on the advertising,” said Freelander. “The gambling companies are engaging people at a very young age. It is addictive and very difficult to manage, and if it is on TV all the time, you can’t escape it”.
MP Keith Wolahan, the Liberal member for Menzies in Melbourne, has also stood by the call for an advertising ban. “Peta’s call for reform is needed now. Online gambling is peddling more than false hope – it is tearing families apart and driving them to food banks,” he said.
B&T contacted PlayUp and the Wests Tigers for comment but did not receive a response prior to publication.
