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A gambling company, Sportsbetreportedly relied on Australia’s communications watchdog to tone down the wording of a public enforcement notice, 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 record AUD 2.5 million ($1.7 million) after it found the company sent marketing texts and emails to thousands of people who had already tried to unsubscribe, in breach of 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 extremely troubling.
“It was shocking on every level,” he said. “This exchange shows a very, very comfortable relationship and a bad relationship.”
Gambling policy expert Lauren Levin from the Gambling Policy Hub said the company and the regulator acted inappropriately.
“Sportsbet is completely out of lineand I think the regulator is also completely out of line,” he said. “It’s unbelievable that a chair of a regulator allows his words to change.”
Despite the criticism, the ACMA rejected claims that the final notice was watered down, insisting it was not “reduced in any way.”
Broader concerns about regulator independence
ABC News also pointed out that the regulator is under growing scrutiny for how close it is to the industries it oversees. Previous reports have found that the ACMA has privately negotiated with Optus to scale up penalties for serious breaches of public safety, and even adjusted the timing of an enforcement notice involving the Commonwealth Bank so it would not compete with the bank’s annual general meeting.
According to the documents, Sportsbet rejected the wording of an earlier draft of the ACMA’s media release about the enforcement action. The regulator found that the company had sent more than 150,000 messages to more than 37,000 people who had already tried to unsubscribe.
In the original draft, ACMA chairman Nerida O’Loughlin was quoted as saying: “It is likely that some of these people are vulnerable to gambling-related problems and are trying to resolve the issue by unsubscribing from Sportsbet promotions.”
He also stated: “It is an important decision for individuals to choose to stop gambling and Sportsbet’s failures in this matter have the real potential to cause financial and emotional harm to these people and their families.”
Sportsbet objected to both passages, arguing that the wording should be “changed/altered as the force, scope or basis for the statement is questionable.”
In the final public version, the wording was said to have been changed to say that the ACMA had received complaints from people experiencing gambling-related problems and that the company’s failings had “the real potential to contribute to financial and emotional harm.”
Former NSW Supreme Court judge and head of the Center for Public Integrity Anthony Whealy said the regulator would never have agreed.
“It should stick to its guns and not do it,” he said. “The reason Sportsbet don’t like the sentences there is because it magnifies the damage of what they’ve done, but it magnifies the damage rightly.
“This is another example of a regulator, because of the cozy relationship it has, wrongly agreeing to requests for special treatment.”
Wilkie urged the Albanese government to look at whether this type of behavior points to a wider, systemic problem.
ACMA and Sportsbet answers
The ACMA declined to be interviewed but said in a statement that the changes were made “to more accurately reflect the circumstances of the matter.” It said the draft media release was shared to ensure it was fair and accurate, and pushed back against claims it improperly held companies to account.
Sportsbet defended its involvement, saying: “Sportsbet has provided comment on the three proposed changes to correct the data and the factual accuracy of the statements.
“ACMA retains ultimate control over the production and content of media releases.
“Any decisions relating to media releases are a matter for the ACMA.”
The company did not explain what evidence it used to challenge the regulator’s original words.
Sportsbet also said it had since overhauled its systems, stating it had carried out “a final review of its authorization and marketing frameworks” and improved policies, training and systems to meet regulatory requirements.
Levin also raised concerns about a separate case involving a man he described as having a “severe gambling problem.” His gambling records ran to more than 900 pages, one of the largest he had ever seen.
After he unsubscribed from marketing in mid-2020, the man later received a personal email from a Sportsbet staff member offering direct contact details, priority betting service, hospitality tickets, and a “$500 bonus bet.”
Levin said he continued to gamble and later experienced severe financial and mental health damage.
He accused Sportsbet of exploiting a loophole that allowed it to continue contacting him despite the request to unsubscribe, and said the company should have acted sooner.
In 2023, he helped file a complaint with the ACMA asking why the man had not received payment under a $1.2 million refund program tied to spam breaches.
According to Levin, the regulator refused to act.
“They didn’t do anything about his complaint from what I saw. He was on his own.”
The ACMA said it could not comment on individual cases for privacy reasons, and noted that the payment scheme was run by Sportsbet under independent supervision. It also said it had no power to order compensation for specific individuals.
Sportsbet also declined to comment on the individual case, saying it was continuing customer reviews and promoting safer gambling tools.
ReadWrite has reached out to the ACMA and Sportsbet for comment.
Featured image: Sportsbet
The post Sportsbet pressured ACMA to soften wording of public enforcement notice’ – report first appeared in ReadWrite.
