‘Cost of doing business’: Sportsbet convicted over illegal ‘bonus bet’ ad

Australia’s largest online bookmaker Sportsbet has been convicted and fined $22,000 for promoting illegal inducements to bet on horse racing, in the latest case of a wagering company falling foul of NSW’s gambling laws.

Anti-gambling campaigners say the latest conviction shows bookies are incorporating fines for breaking the law into their cost of doing business and that Australia should follow other countries in banning gambling advertising altogether.

Sportsbet is the latest bookmaker to fall foul of NSW’s gambling advertising laws. Credit: Getty

Twenty-five bookmakers have been convicted for breaching NSW’s gambling advertising laws since 2015 and gambling identity Tom Waterhouse could be the next in line. His wagering outfit is set to face court next week on 14 charges of breaching the Betting and Racing Act.

In the Downing Centre Local Court in Sydney last Monday, Magistrate Megan Greenwood convicted Sportsbet of breaching the prohibition on offering “inducements” to gamble and fined it $22,000 over a full page ad published in the Daily Telegraph on June 13, 2020.

The ad said punters would get “$50 back in bonus bets” if their horse finished second or third place in race meetings that weekend, sparking an investigation by the state’s gambling watchdog.

Sportsbet, which is owned by the Irish gambling giant Flutter, pleaded guilty and told the court the breach was a “human error” in which an advertisement intended for Melbourne’s Herald Sun was inadvertently sent to its Sydney sister paper.

Tom Waterhouse’s wagering outfit has been charged with 14 counts of breaking NSW’s gambling laws. Credit: Louie Douvis

Magistrate Greenwood said it was hard for the prosecution to test this claim and noted that Sportsbet had not learnt its lesson after being convicted and fined $10,000 fine in 2019 for the same offence.

Alliance for Gambling Reform chief advocate Tim Costello said that with turnover in the billions, a $20,000 fine was a “drop in the ocean” for Sportsbet and that it would “no doubt factor in such fines as a cost of doing business”.

Reverend Costello said Australia should ban gambling advertising, which was making children believe that gambling was a normal activity.

“Research shows three in four Aussie kids view gambling as a normal part of sport - that’s an absolute travesty,” he said. “We stopped tobacco ads, and you can’t advertise pokies. We can end gambling ads too.”

Meanwhile, racing industry royalty Tom Waterhouse - the son of famed bookmaker Rob Waterhouse and well known horse trainer Gai Waterhouse - is facing 14 charges of breaching NSW’s advertising laws.

In each case his bookmaking outfit tomwaterhouse.com is accused of offering bonus bets, matched deposits or better favourable odds to punters if they opened an account or placed a bet with his father’s wagering company, robwaterhouse.com.

The alleged offences occurred between June and October last year, according to charge sheets filed with the NSW local court. The racing scion did not respond to a request for comment. Sportsbet also declined to comment.

Liquor and Gaming NSW has successfully prosecuted 25 bookmakers and third-party betting platforms over illegal advertising since 2015, resulting in $324,450 in fines and $249,626 in costs.

Ladbrokes and Neds, both owned by UK gambling group Entain, were convicted and fined $207,500 in February last year in NSW for advertising illegal “bonus bet” inducements through TV and social media advertisements, which was the largest fine of its kind. On appeal, the fine was reduced to $159,000 plus $31,500 in costs. TAB owner Tabcorp was fined $18,000 last December for promoting illegal inducements through Instagram ads.

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