Australia’s Gambling Crackdown Reaches Affiliates: Why 2027 Could Reshape the Wagering Market

Australia’s gambling debate has moved beyond advertising. On 19 August 2026, the Australian Parliament passed the Interactive Gambling Amendment (Gambling Reform) Bill 2026, introducing one of the most consequential changes to Australian wagering regulation in years. Most provisions are scheduled to commence on 1 January 2027.

The headline measures include tighter wagering-advertising restrictions, stronger BetStop protections, expanded powers against illegal gambling services and restrictions on inducements. But commercially, one provision deserves considerably more attention: commissions linked to customer activity for staff, agents and affiliates are being prohibited.

That changes the discussion from where gambling can be advertised to how customer acquisition can be financially rewarded. For affiliates, wagering companies and digital publishers, Australia is therefore becoming an important international case study in whether governments can regulate not only gambling advertising, but the economic incentives behind it.

From Advertising Regulation to Acquisition Regulation

Australia already operates one of the more restrictive online casino environments among developed gambling markets. Under the Interactive Gambling Act 2001, operators cannot legally provide Australians with prohibited interactive gambling services such as online casino games and online slots. Unlicensed interactive wagering services are similarly prohibited. Enforcement has intensified substantially. By July 2026, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) reported that 1,774 illegal gambling and affiliate websites had been blocked since website blocking began in November 2019, while more than 230 illegal services had withdrawn from the Australian market following stronger enforcement introduced in 2017. The scale of activity accelerated during 2026. Between April and June alone, ACMA investigated 76 gambling sites, identified 56 breaches of the Interactive Gambling Act and referred 187 websites for ISP blocking.

The Affiliate Provision Changes the Economics

The new reforms go further. ACMA describes the legislation as introducing “a ban on commissions to staff or affiliates based on customer activity.” The legislative definition is deliberately broad. Commission can include referral fees, revenue share, profit share, performance payments, bonuses, incentives and other monetary or non-monetary benefits where these relate to defined customer activity.

That activity can include creating or reactivating an account, depositing money, placing a bet or removing gambling-minimization measures. This is significant because traditional gambling affiliate economics have often depended on precisely these behaviors. Revenue-share arrangements, in particular, may reward publishers according to subsequent player activity rather than simply paying for media exposure.

Australia's policy direction challenges that model at its foundation. The reasoning is not entirely new. The parliamentary inquiry that preceded the reforms heard concerns that some affiliates could receive trailing commissions connected with referred customers' future losses. Its Recommendation 21 proposed prohibiting commissions to staff or third parties involved in referring or providing online gambling.

Government Policy Is Separating Gambling From Sport

Advertising is the second major front. The Australian Government says the 2026 reforms restrict wagering advertising, including during live sport and in sporting venues, while expanding restrictions on inducements and strengthening BetStop. The political objective is particularly focused on reducing the normalization of gambling among younger audiences.

Communications Minister Jenny McAllister explained the government's approach in an August 2026 interview:

“We want to break the nexus between sport and gambling, especially for young people.”

— Senator Jenny McAllister, Australian Government minister, News24 interview, 9 August 2026.

This distinction matters. Canberra is no longer treating gambling advertising simply as another regulated advertising category. Increasingly, it is being treated as a public-health exposure issue.

Why Gambling Harm Is Driving the Political Response

Australia's gambling statistics help explain the pressure. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data show that sports betting participation increased from 3.3% of adults in a typical month in 2015 to 5.1% in 2022. Risk indicators have moved in the wrong direction as well. The estimated prevalence of high-risk gambling increased from 1.1% in 2018 to 1.8% in 2022, while moderate-risk gambling rose from 2.5% to 3.1%. BetStop provides another indication of demand for intervention. By 30 June 2026, 65,430 people had registered with Australia's National Self-Exclusion Register, with 40,160 exclusions still active. Strikingly, 30,081 registrants were aged 30 or younger. For policymakers, these numbers strengthen the argument that acquisition and retention systems cannot be examined separately from gambling harm.

Women Gamble Differently, But Risk Is Not Exclusively Male

Gender data provide a more nuanced picture. Men remain substantially more likely to bet on sport and racing. In a typical month in 2022, approximately 9.3% of men bet on sports compared with 1.1% of women. Racing participation showed a similarly substantial gender gap. But lower participation should not be taken to mean negligible harm. AIHW reports that 1.2% of women, approximately 157,000 people, were classified as high-risk gamblers in 2022, compared with 2.4% of men. Both figures had risen since 2018. Earlier national research also found that among gamblers aged 18–34, 71% of men and 56% of women were at risk of, or already experiencing, gambling harm. This creates a challenge for responsible-gambling policy: the dominant betting demographic may be young men, but harm-prevention systems cannot be designed as though gambling harm were exclusively male.

Australia’s Gambling Market: A 2026–2027 SWOT Analysis

Strength	Stronger federal oversight, BetStop infrastructure and active ACMA enforcement increase consumer-protection visibility.
Weakness	Australia's state/federal regulatory structure remains complex, while legal wagering and prohibited online casino products operate under very different rules.
Opportunity	Independent publishers can move toward compliance-led comparison, licensing verification, responsible-gambling information and genuinely editorial content.
Threat	Activity-based affiliate remuneration, aggressive acquisition tactics and promotion of prohibited offshore services face substantially greater regulatory risk.

Geography Matters

Enforcement is federal, but gambling participation, licensing and policy remain influenced by Australia's state and territory structure. BetStop data show the largest cumulative registrations by June 2026 in New South Wales (20,423), Victoria (17,501) and Queensland (13,472). For publishers, operators and researchers, Australia should therefore not always be treated as a perfectly homogeneous gambling market.

What Changes During 2027?

DivaJackpot expects three structural adjustments. First, affiliate remuneration will become a compliance issue rather than merely a commercial negotiation. Contracts will increasingly need legal review of what event actually triggers payment. Second, affiliate businesses may need to distinguish more clearly between editorial publishing and player-acquisition activity. Research, regulatory reporting, operator comparisons and gambling-harm education could become more important as publishers reduce dependence on behavior-linked monetization. Third, Australia's approach may become relevant beyond Australia. Governments internationally are examining the relationship between gambling promotion, influencers, sport, digital advertising and vulnerable audiences. Australia's decision to intervene directly in affiliate incentives creates a regulatory model that other jurisdictions can observe.

DivaJackpot 2027 Forecast

Our base-case scenario is not the disappearance of gambling marketing. Instead, we expect a migration from aggressive acquisition toward regulated, measurable and increasingly compliance-driven marketing. ACMA itself has made implementation of the new gambling-advertising reforms a 2026–27 compliance priority. Meanwhile, enforcement against offshore casino and affiliate websites is unlikely to slow. The trajectory is already visible: ACMA's blocked-site count rose from 1,369 in November 2025 to 1,774 by July 2026.

For affiliates targeting Australia, the strategic question for 2027 is therefore no longer simply:
How much traffic can we acquire?
It is becoming:
What type of gambling publishing and monetization can survive Australia's new regulatory environment?

Conclusion: Australia Is Regulating the Incentive, Not Just the Advertisement

Australia's 2026 reform represents an important evolution in gambling regulation. Governments have traditionally concentrated on licensing operators, restricting advertisements and protecting minors. Australia is now moving deeper into the acquisition chain by addressing the financial incentives connecting wagering companies, employees, agents and affiliates to customer gambling activity. That could prove more consequential than another advertising blackout.

For responsible affiliates, the opportunity lies in independence: transparent reviews, regulatory analysis, safer-gambling information, clear commercial disclosures and content whose economic value does not depend on encouraging increasingly intensive gambling. For operators and affiliates built around player losses, deposits, retention and wagering volume, however, 2027 represents something very different. Australia is signaling that the architecture behind gambling marketing can be regulated just as aggressively as the advertisement consumers eventually see.

References / Works Cited

Australian Communications and Media Authority. (2026). About the Interactive Gambling Act.
Australian Communications and Media Authority. (2026, July 15). Latest illegal online gambling websites blocked.
Australian Communications and Media Authority. (2026). BetStop – the National Self-Exclusion Register Statistics: Q4 2025–2026.
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2025). Gambling.
Australian Parliament. (2026). Interactive Gambling Amendment (Gambling Reform) Bill 2026.
Australian Parliament, House Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs. (2023). You win some, you lose more: Online gambling and its impacts on those experiencing gambling harm.
Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts. (2026). Gambling Reforms 2026.
Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing. (2026, August 9). TV interview with Minister McAllister, News24.