A gambling company, Sportsbet, reportedly leaned on Australia’s communications watchdog to tone down the wording of a public enforcement announcement, according to documents released under freedom of information laws.
ABC News reports that in 2022, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) fined Sportsbet a then-record AUD 2.5 million ($1.7 million) after finding the company had sent marketing texts and emails to tens of thousands of people who had already tried to unsubscribe, breaching Australia’s spam laws.
But documents obtained by the news outlet suggest that Sportsbet managed to convince the regulator to soften key parts of a draft media release before it was published.
Independent federal MP Andrew Wilkie called the situation deeply troubling.
“This is shocking at every level,” he said. “This exchange shows a very, very cosy relationship and a very unhealthy relationship.”
Gambling policy expert Lauren Levin from the Gambling Policy Hub said both the company and the regulator had behaved inappropriately.
“Sportsbet is totally out of line, and I think that the regulator is also totally out of line,” she said. “It is quite unbelievable that a chair of a regulator allows her words to be changed.”
Despite the criticism, the ACMA has rejected claims that the final announcement was weakened, insisting it was not “diminished in any way.”
Broader concerns about regulator independence
ABC News also pointed out that the regulator has been under growing scrutiny over how close it is to the industries it oversees. Previous reporting found that the ACMA privately negotiated with Optus to scale back penalties over serious public safety breaches, and even adjusted the timing of an enforcement announcement involving the Commonwealth Bank so it wouldn’t clash with the bank’s annual general meeting.
According to the documents, Sportsbet pushed back against the wording in an early draft of the ACMA’s media release about the enforcement action. The regulator had found that the company sent more than 150,000 messages to over 37,000 people who had already tried to unsubscribe.
In the original draft, ACMA chair Nerida O’Loughlin allegedly said: “It is highly likely that some of these people are vulnerable to gambling-related problems and were trying to address the issue by unsubscribing from Sportsbet’s promotions.”
She also stated: “It is a significant decision for individuals to choose to cease gambling and Sportsbet’s failures in this matter had the real potential to cause financial and emotional harm to these people and their families.”
Sportsbet objected to both passages, arguing the wording should be “tempered/changed as the force, breadth or basis for the statement is questionable.”
In the final public version, the wording was said to have been altered to say the ACMA had received complaints from people experiencing gambling-related problems and that the company’s failures had the “real potential to contribute to financial and emotional harm.”
Former NSW Supreme Court judge and Centre for Public Integrity chair Anthony Whealy said the regulator should never have given in.
“It’s got to stick to its guns and it’s not doing that,” he said. “The reason Sportsbet didn’t want those sentences in there was because it magnified the harm of what they had done, but it magnified the harm correctly.
“This is another example of a regulator, because of the cosy relationship it has, wrongly acceding to requests for special treatment.”
Wilkie has urged the Albanese government to look into whether this kind of behavior points to a wider, systemic problem.
ACMA and Sportsbet responses
The ACMA declined to be interviewed but said in a statement that changes were made “to more accurately reflect the circumstances of the matter.” It said draft media releases are shared to make sure they’re fair and accurate, and pushed back against claims that it wasn’t properly holding companies to account.
Sportsbet defended its involvement, saying: “Sportsbet provided comment on three suggested amendments to correct data and the factual accuracy of statements.
“The ACMA retained ultimate control of the media release drafting and content.
“Any decisions related to the media release is a matter for ACMA.”
The company didn’t explain what evidence it used to challenge the regulator’s original wording.
Sportsbet also said it had since overhauled its systems, stating it had conducted “an end-to-end review of its consent and marketing frameworks” and improved policies, training and systems to meet regulatory requirements.
Levin also raised concerns about a separate case involving a man with what she described as a “severe gambling problem.” His gambling records ran to more than 900 pages, which was among the largest she had ever seen.
After he unsubscribed from marketing in mid-2020, the man later received a personalised email from a Sportsbet staff member offering direct contact details, priority betting services, hospitality tickets, and a “$500 bonus bet.”
Levin said he kept gambling and later experienced serious financial and mental health harm.
She accused Sportsbet of exploiting a loophole that allowed it to keep contacting him despite the unsubscribe request, and said the company should have stepped in much earlier.
In 2023, she helped file a complaint with the ACMA questioning why the man didn’t receive compensation under the $1.2 million refund program tied to the spam breaches.
According to Levin, the regulator declined to take action.
“They didn’t actually do anything with his complaint as far as I can see. He was on his own.”
The ACMA said it couldn’t comment on individual cases for privacy reasons, and noted that the compensation scheme was run by Sportsbet under independent oversight. It also said it doesn’t have the power to order compensation for specific individuals.
Sportsbet also declined to comment on the individual case, saying it carries out ongoing customer checks and promotes safer gambling tools.
ReadWrite has reached out to the ACMA and Sportsbet for comment.
Featured image: Sportsbet
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