A spokeswoman for Minister for Communications Michelle Rowland said the government was pushing ahead with BetStop, which was in its final testing phases.
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland. Alex Ellinghausen
“The BetStop system has been subject to extensive final testing and trialling, including with industry,” the spokeswoman said.
“This has been necessary to provide a secure and trusted protection for at-risk gamblers.
“The security of sensitive personal information and compatibility with industry betting systems is essential to ensure consumer confidence in BetStop.”
The incident highlights the power the online gaming operators have over the NTRC, the little-known regulator stationed in the NT.
ASX-listed Tabcorp recently called for a single national gambling regulator, slamming the way foreign-owned online gaming giants have used the “patchwork” of laws to station themselves in the Top End, paying less tax than physical operators.
The likes of SportsBet, bet365 and Ladbrokes, which operate easy-to-use apps, have surged in popularity in Australia, replacing more traditional forms of gambling.
Some estimates put the online wagering industry in Australia at around $6 billion a year.
Registering for self-exclusion
The idea of a national register for problem gamblers to self-exclude stemmed from a review into illegal offshore gambling from the former NSW premier Barry O’Farrell in 2016.
Former NSW premier Barry O’Farrell first flagged the introduction of a national self-exclusion register in 2016. John Veage
Since then, the register has slowly made its way to becoming policy, with the Morrison government passing legislation to create the register in 2019.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority has been tasked with overseeing the register, which would give problem gamblers the chance to enter their details into an online portal and all online bookmakers would be required to block them when they try to sign up to services. A similar register already operates in the UK.
Darwin showdown
Despite praising the register in public, industry opposition to how BetStop works came to a head during a private meeting of the NTRC, senior ACMA official Jeremy Fenton and major online bookmakers on November 28 last year.
According to the subsequent letter from the NTRC’s Mr Shields, online bookmakers believed there were privacy concerns with keeping all the personal details of problem gamblers in one place.
The letter also suggested bookmakers believed problem gamblers could get around the register, by opening accounts using different names or addresses to those they provided to BetStop.
”The [NTRC] understands it is the position of our licensed bookmakers that the issues can only be addressed by comprehensively changing the model for BetStop,” Mr Shields wrote.
“If that is not possible, given the above mentioned constraints, we would ask the department and the ACMA to further consult on these important issues and work with industry to address them adequately before implementation.”
The existing self-exclusion register for problem gamblers involves them printing out a PDF form, filling out their details and then scanning and sending the form back to the NTRC.
Despite efforts to slow the rollout, Mr Shields provided a statement to the Financial Review on Monday morning that said the NTRC was an “enthusiastic supporter of an effective national self-exclusion register”.
“The commission would like to see the rollout of an effective and robust self-exclusion system taking into account real-life scenarios such that the potential harms arising from gambling, including those individuals who, because of their addiction, seek to deliberately circumvent processes/systems, are further reduced.”
