Australia’s largest gambling company, Tabcorp, has been slammed with a $4,003,270 fine for breaking the country’s spam laws.  

The company reportedly sent more than 5,700 marketing messages to customers of its VIP program, leading to the latest enforcement action by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). 

An investigation found that the wagering and gaming products and services provider sent 2,598 SMS and WhatsApp messages to VIP customers between 1 February and 1 May 2024 without providing an option to unsubscribe from the messages.

ACMA added that it also found 3,148 SMS and WhatsApp messages that did not contain adequate sender information across the same period, and 11 SMS messages that were sent without consent between 15 February and 29 April 2024.

“This is the first time the ACMA has investigated and found spam breaches in a gambling VIP program. These programs often involve personalised messages offering incentives such as bonus bets, deposit matching, rebates and offers of tickets to sporting and other events,” says ACMA member Samantha Yorke. 

“The gambling industry needs to understand that spam laws apply to all direct marketing – whether it’s generic campaigns or personalised messages. 

“It is utterly unacceptable that TAB did not have adequate spam compliance systems in place.” 

Australia’s spam laws 

Under the Spam Act 2003, enforced by ACMA, businesses must adhere to several guidelines when sending commercial electronic messages including emails, SMS and instant messages. 

These include ensuring current and verifiable consent to receive messages; clear identification of the sender with accurate contact information; a functional and easy-to-use unsubscribe option; a prohibition on the use of address-harvesting software; and making sure that they do not contain misleading content including deceptive subject lines. 

“When people make choices to unsubscribe from a service they must be able to do so easily and their decisions must be respected by companies,” Yorke noted in reference to the thousands of SMS and WhatsApp messages Tabcorp sent which did not include an unsubscribe option. 

As part of the remedial measures, Tabcorp has also entered into a three-year court-enforceable undertaking. It includes an independent review of its direct marketing systems, making improvements, running quarterly audits of its VIP direct marketing, training staff and reporting to the ACMA regularly.

ACMA said that its current compliance priorities are centred around gambling safeguards and spam rules. Over the last 18 months, businesses have been penalised over $16.9 million for spam breaches.

In May last year, Pizza Hut Australia was fined just over $2.5 million by ACMA for sending more than 10 million marketing messages in breach of Australian spam laws across a four-month period.

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